Jeff's Blog - Poker, Life

Long long long break from blogging

2009-03-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all, so I haven't blogged in 2 months which is probably the longest since I started blogging 2 years ago. Anyways I'm now going to blog on www.mypokeressentials.com so look for my posts there. I may use this from time to time but mypokeressentials.com will be the main one. So check it out!

Ciao 2008 Hola 2009!

2009-01-02T17:01:00.000-08:00

Yo yo. It's been awhile but I didn't really play poker in December. Something like 4500-5000 hands and I made in the $2kish range. S'ok, I had a lot of exams (6) and a lot of studying to do for the first half of the month. For 4 days in there I went to Edmonton to visit my grandparents. It was alright, pretty boring but I made like $300 in the little grinding that I did.

Soooo 2008 is gone! I can say with full confidence that 2008 was the best year of my life. I changed so much in 2008 and I'm really happy with the changes. So let's do a little recap of why 2008 was awesome.

1. Australia!!! - Going to aussietown was the best thing I have ever done. I'm kind of surprised I did go actually, because I had been a pretty introverted person most of my life. For some reason though in 1st year of Uni I went to the exchange meeting and the idea of traveling just got stuck in my head. Anyways I went, 6 months later than expected, but I got there and had a blast. I met awesome people, traveled, partied, and came out of my shell lol. AND put on weight! Cuz I was apparently super crazy skinny when I went. Looking back at pics I really looked unhealthy. But with Nate my roomate I got the working out craze and have been doing that ever since.

2. Other travels! - Before Australia I went to Florida to visit my buddy Mike for a few days. This was a cool trip. After Aus I went to Vegas with poker buddies which turned out to be another awesome experience. Friends for life yo. Then I went to Winnipeg for a wedding and met up with the friends I grew up with. Good times.

3. Poker!! - Ok I didn't play nearly as much or make nearly as much as I expected to at the beginning of 2008. This is fine with me though. I still made something like $80k, and spent a crapload but of which I don't regret $0.01 of. I still enjoy the game though and it is the best opportunity available to me at the moment. Poker is on this list basically because it has afforded me a pretty sweet lifestyle for someone my age. Coolabah :)

And the last 4 months of the year I met an amazing girl who is now my girlfriend. I'm really happy being with her because we always have a great time. It doesn't hurt that she's smoking hot either ;)

New years was an awesome time the gf and I went to a 70's party at a restaurant in town. It was just a great time dancing, drinking and just looking retarded with everyone else lol.

So I think it's time for the new years resolutions. This year I'm trying to make them more attainable and have chosen those that really would make me happy if i achieved them. So here we go.

1. Make at least $150k from poker - this goal is more reasonable than last years for a couple reasons. 1) I have learned that I don't want to grind grind grind and have no life. The value of the extra money I could make isn't more than the value I gain from living a balanced life. 2.) $150k is plenty to live off of including some trips I want to make, and this number is pretty attainable if I just keep poker as a lucrative hobby.

2. Travel travel travel!!!!!! - Ok so I graduate this year in April so I guess big changes are on the way. I need to fulfill my travel bug, so I expect to go to Europe this year. I would like to try living somewhere else, but I'm not going to make any committments yet. I'll just see what happens.

3. Get bigger - continue to workout 5-6 days a week. Don't get complacent, continue to lift heavier and workout more intense. Hopefully be 170lbs+ by the end of the year. I'm about 155lbs right now.

4. Start a business!!!!! - When I realize this goal this year it will make me the happiest I can be. I've been putting off investments and businesses for the past couple years because of poker, travel, and just life. Yes this business has to be profitable, but I don't expect to be a millionaire this year from it. The fulfillment I would get from starting a profitable business that I love would be huuuuge. So this is a big priority for me.

And the rest is just to enjoy life, graduate from school, and just have a blast. Good luck everyone with your resulations. Let's make 2009 the best year yet!

November recap and HU

2008-12-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

Yup it's been a long time again, blah blah blah. I just didn't really play poker in November. I played around 6k hands and lost around $4600. Just pretty standard -$5k at 5/10 at the beginning of the month and I didn't play enough to make it back. Near the end of the month though I got into playing HU and I really thought I played well even though the results weren't there. I may have made a little bit but didn't run very well.

So for this month I am going to play almost exclusively HU on full tilt because 1. It's so much more fun than 6-max, 2. It will make me a better player and 3. 6-max blows. I just played a nice sesh made $400 busting a few short stack donks at HU then 2 tabled 5/10 on abs and lost $800ish. 20bb 88 vs AA pretty standard cooler then my JJ ran into K7o which obviously wasn't good. I hold up and I'd of had a nice session today instead I lost around $400. Not much obviously but I'm getting annoyed with losing.

November was a pretty decent month in other areas. Dancing is fun as always, even though my partner and I are way ahead of everyone else and taking the group classes is maddening how slow they go. Not so bad for Salsa, but oh man Rumba classes I could do with my eyes closed. "Ok everyone, lets review!" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO".

I was thinking the other day that this year so far has been the best of my life. I honestly can't remember a year where I had more fun or matured so much. LOL me mature cmon now. But seriously, I had an amazing 5 months in Australia, made decent money from poker (I'd guess around $70k so far which is way below my goal but I'm super glad I didn't play more in Australia) and just changed so much as a person. I'm really glad at where I am in life right now, although I wouldn't mind clicking the mouse a little more and making $30k like Howard's whore Steve, and I'm looking forward to this next year a ton.

It's freaky though because I'll be done school in April this coming year. I don't know what I'm going to do after that...I want to move somewhere overseas like Spain maybe, cuz I'm learning Spanish and it seems fun/relatively warm. It all depends on poker though...maybe I should actually grind in December and the coming year. I sometimes forget how different my life/decisions would be if I didn't have poker to ship my bank account the moneys. Looking at my poor friends is a pretty big wake up call.

So this was basically an early year recap but I'll do a more in detail one at the end of this month. Until next time, you stay classy interweb peoples.

I am playing terrible poker

2008-11-10T11:19:00.001-08:00

Ya so I just spewed off 2 buyins at 2/4 HU. And by spewed I mean like WTF was I thinking? Why do I try to outlevel myself like crazy all the time? Why is my thought process so scrambled and random for poker? Maybe it's because I've learned the game through a ton of different sources and never really developed my own strategy. Either way I'm rusty, not playing well, not focused, and down nearly $5k this month in something like 1500 hands. I just love to click the call button lately. What has changed in my game/mentality to make me do things like this?

JB's back yo

2008-11-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

Hey all. Sorry it's taken me so long to blog again. The truth is I haven't played much poker in the last 2 months. Probably just over 20k hands total. Oh well, I've shipped the moneys pretty good for how many hands I've put in. Obviously nothing like whitewash, but I've come to the conclusion that he has repeatedly done sexual favours for Howard Lederer.

S'ok though, I've made just under $20k in the last 2 months so that's pretty reasonable imo. I've also cashed out about $17k trying to take advantage of the Canadian dollar diving. Too bad it didn't work out that great for me. At the lowest point C$ was at $.77 / US$. This is down from roughly par or high $.90's and is like getting a big raise. I cashed the first $5k USD through instaDebit, although they hit me with big conversion fees and I got it converted at $.85. Meh.

I then got two cheques from Absolute that were supposed to be $5k USD each, but guess what? They decided to convert it themselves! So they converted, with some fee I'm sure, at around $.85 as well. I then followed these cashouts by dropping around $6k so my roll on Absolute is getting kind of small lol. It's tough to buy in $2k deep at 5/10 when I only have $35k in my roll.

I think in the long term (1-3 years I guess) these cashouts will have been good as I feel the USD has to tank in relation to other world currencies. Their economy is in the worst shape in history, basically, and for them to continue to be competitive during this recession they need a devaluing of their dollar. Even so, I doubt the CAD $ will go above par, but that isn't really a big issue really. I'd love it if the CAD $ stayed at like $.70 / USD. That would be sick yo!

Now for some life news. I'm enjoying life lately. Obviously it would be much cooler if I was making $25k/month playing 10k hands but it's still cool. School is quite busy but enjoyable for the most part. My busiest class is Spanish; it seems like we have an exam or presentation every week. The other classes are going well, I kind of feel like I'm not getting my tuition's worth though. It's like in every class I know most of the material from previous classes. I am learning some stuff but nothing is completely new. Maybe that's to be expected in 4th year, I don't know.

Today I got up at 1:30pm lol this is like the latest I've slept in 6 months. I had very late nights friday and saturday dancing in the clubs and enjoying some jagerbombs :). Speaking of dancing, I'm doing the Rumba and Salsa on Wednesdays and Fridays. It's such a good time I really enjoy it. My partner and I had our first Salsa lesson on Friday night and it was so cool. A younger crowd at Salsa too which is nice. I prefer to dance with younger women over people who are in my parents generation lol. But I highly recommend dancing to anyone who hasn't done it before.

Most of my hands this month have been coolers, except a hero calldown I made that obviously didn't work out. That cost me like $1100. The truth is I've been fairly bored with poker the last couple of months. 2/4 6-max doesn't seem to really do it for me anymore. I really like the action and stakes of 5/10 and wish I could sometimes play 10/20 when the games are good. Obviously my games needs a lot of work, and tbh I'm not sure if I'm prepared to work on it that much in the coming months. That said I do want to start making $20k/month. So I've decided to learn HU and become a bumhunter like whitewash lolz. Nah I'd just like to be good enough at HU that I can increase my game selection. Playing HU should make my overall game better as well anyways.

Thats it for today homies, I'll try to blog way more often from now on. Hasta luego amigos.

Some cool spots tonight

2008-10-09T21:17:00.001-07:00

I only screamed 3 or 4 times this session, so I'd say it went pretty well. Here's some swongy hands.

Hand 1: A situation i hate

He was fairly new to the table and won't 3 bet super wide but folding just feels uber weak. I has an overpair on the flop so i must call. I don't like a flop raise with anything really, id just call sets mainly. Turn he double barrels with near 100% frequency and I will hate life if I call turn and he shoves river, which he will do enough of the time. I debated raising the turn which I think is a pretty cool play but those stupid turbo tables timed me out. Any suggestions on what I can do differently here?

Hand 2: Timing tells ftw

Villain is good regular; this is last hand as the table just broke a second ago. He snap 3 bets me and both of us know I'm sitting out after this hand. He 3 bets often enough regularly, but this felt like any two cards. I decided to call and chk raise a ton of flops. This flop is good as even if he had something semi decent he has to fold. It also shows a ton of strength because he probably thinks i won't get involved in a big pot when I'm leaving the next hand.

Hand 3: Love everything I did here

Flop raise is cool here because my value range is so minimal. Sometimes AK, KQ, and 33. Most other raises are bluff's/semibluffs. He times down to about 2 seconds left before 3 betting. He 99% of the time is bluffing here, and QJ is unlikely. I think he chk folds turn super often so I chk back planning to do something on the river. On river I debate betting large, even shoving, but decide he can't call with anything really. I like my bet size because it is right in the middle of 1.) Bluffing but trying not to risk too much, 2.) Some thin value bet. Good result.

Hand 4: Tough spot

These flops are tough to play this deep, and most of the time I expect him to raise it up. My default is call, but that doesn't seem so great for some reason. 3 betting doesn't get me in good ever as my hand is pretty defined, unless I can 3 bet bluff it fairly frequently. This isn't a huge part of my game though. Once I call turn my hand is pretty defined as an overpair. He probably thinks I would raise a T on the turn a decent % of the time.

The draw misses and he shoves river. His value range here is pretty much only 33, 99, and rarely T9. He overbet shoves river. I didn't really know what to do here. In retrospect I think I should have called as he raises flop a lot. The question, as cntgetmedown said, is does he expect me to fold an overpair? If this was 5/10 200bb I think the call is much easier. He probably views me as somewhat scared money at 5/10. At 3/6 though, I find it less likely he thinks this way.

The other problem I have is his bet sizing. Generally if he decided he's going to bluff river he'll make it a PSB or overbet as he did. However, a bet more than $210 on the turn, if he has a big hand and wants to make the river bet less, is almost getting too big regardless of his hand imo. I think going over it again I should have called river because I am at the very top of my range. He could even be doing this with KK sometimes, though not super likely.

Hand 5: Mmmmm revenge :)

I like all my betsizing in this hand. Don't like his shove very much.

Hand 6: Obligatory I RUN SOOOO BAADDD

Villain and I had a very aggro 3 betting dynamic going on, I'm fine with felting this pre. NOOOO FLOP NOT THIS TIME.......Turn.........NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Session went pretty well though made just over $2k. Peace.

School getting busy/sesh review

2008-10-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

Yup, I've finally had to open a few books :(. I had my spanish presentation yesterday and it went pretty well. I forget the verb to drive, manejar, for a second and looked stupid but then remembered and finished decently. I am coming to realize that I hate hate hate philosophy. Some of the concepts we talk about in class are kind of cool but I don't like the teacher, don't like the readings, don't like the assignments, etc, etc. It's just 3 hours of lameness/week plus the lameness of homework.

I haven't played as much as I'd like to but I am trying to get in a session every night. This is when 5/10 runs on abs as well so playing at night is better. The problem is I get pretty tired pretty fast and don't play my A game near the end of the sesh. That just happened and I left some decent games early because I wasn't concentrating like I should be. Here's some hands.

Hand 1: Pretty easy river fold imo

Villain is a 22/8 passive type who very rarely gets out of line. The only 2 pair hand he bets for value on the river is KT and there's a ton of flushes in his range. Combine that with his timing and bet size; a fold is pretty mandatory. I quit right after this.

Hand 2: Meh, not great

Villain here is pretty aggro and has 4 bet me once and I've 4 bet him once. He c bets around 78% so I think calling here when deep and chk raising a lot of flops is pretty cool. Not an ideal flop to chk raise here but it's alright. He c bets that near 100% and if I just call and play my 4's for value he'll double/triple barrel me a decent frequency. So I'm cool with flop raise. I planned on double barreling a lot of turns but decided he'd check behind a fair amount with mediocre aces and I picked up a lot of equity. I was planning to bet any 9, 8, 6, 5, 4 and heart on the river all of which are pretty congruent with my range. For some reason I bet this river though, and I think with his opinion on me of pretty aggro/bluffy, its kind of bad. Alternatively, I flat AK, AQ, AJ a fair amount preflop now and I would play it pretty similarly. I don't think he puts those hands in my range though, so in his eyes most of my range is a bluff here.

Hand 3: Maybe I should fold pre

I really don't like how these type of hands tend to go down against good regulars. He'd been playing pretty tight but can easily still be raising SC's from UTG to mix it up, so I don't even know if I have great set odds. The value of my hand is likely ahead of his range, but he can put so much pressure on me I don't know if it's profitable to call. When i chk call flop I think he double barrels almost his entire range. I debated raising to around $420 on the turn as his double barrel range is so wide and I could play a full house this way. I think it's a pretty decent play but I was distracted. Also with my table image I don't think I get very much credit.

So it looks like in this situation my perceived range is low-mid pp's and the random AQs. The truth is that range pretty much = my actual range. So what can we do to create some balance? I think flatting JJ+, AKo, AKs here is pretty sweet. First I can check raise for value a lot of flops that he won't think hits my range, and it makes my bluff raises with small pp's more credible when I make them. It also makes him less prone to double/triple barrel bluff me as 1. My range could hit those scare cards and 2. He doesn't know whether I have a small pp here or AA.

Even so, I think I should just fold 22-66 or so. Maybe all the way up to 88. Obviously this is opponent specific but against this particular one I doubt I can play those small pp's profitably.

Well I lost $670 on this session but it wasn't really bad at all. Those hands above are the only ones of interest and I lost a few coolers. Nothing to worry about yo. You stay classy pokerville.

September life/results

2008-10-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

Hey all sorry its been so long since I last blogged. The last week or so I've been wanting to but just find excuses not to. I promise I'll blog more than once in October :). As for poker, well I just didn't play very much in September. I think I was fairly burned out from August where I played around 42k hands. It's ok though averaged out thats 25k hands/month! I also decided to only play 4 tables this month especially when playing 5/10 deep. I played 6 at some point but briefly and usually only when there is no 5/10 running and I'm just grinding 2/4.

I feel pretty good about my game right now. 5/10 2k deep isn't super scary anymore; now when I play its more of a rush which makes it more fun. I wish it ran more on abs but I guess it isn't terrible because when it does run its usually decent. One thing about my game that I feel great about is how I recognize when I'm on tilt and decide to leave. Its kind of a phil ivey approach in that if he loses a buyin or two he leaves. I've just noticed that if I lose 3 or 4 buyins at 2/4, 1 or 2 at 5/10 I get frustrated and become impatient. Leaving even only for an hour lets me clear my head and come back playing my best. This is my number 1 edge imo.

Anyways here's September's results, obviously a lame number of hands but still shipped the moneys pretty good. I'd probably add about 1k for rakeback/bonuses.

As for life I enjoyed September quite a bit. School starting is always kinda cool with new classes, new people, just a new routine basically. Especially cuz I was so sick of my routine in August. My schedule now is pretty sweet; 2 days i'm done by 1120am then i go do my workout, 2 days my only class is 4pm, and one day is kinda lame with 6 hours back to back then workout.

I haven't really done any work yet in school but I fear that is changing quickly. Next week I have a 3-5 min presentation in Spanish where I have to talk about my 'fake' family with at least 4 family members and using at least 10 verbs. At least I get to have a study date with my molto bonita partner.

In a couple weeks I'm starting to dance twice a week with a girl friend of mine. We've decided to learn two dances, Salsa and another we haven't picked yet. It's $100 for 2 classes a week for 6 weeks so it sounds pretty reasonable. Should be pretty fun.

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do when I'm done school in April. It sounds like my buddy may ditch on Eurotrip so I really don't know what's gonna happen. I do not want to get a standard 9-5 job, thats a definite fouauauau shouauauaua. If I take one to learn about an industry I want to invest in, that's cool but I gotta remember what I really want in life. I want the freedom of an entrepreneur, multiple streams of passive income, to travel the world, live in another country, experience culture, and generally find fulfilment and grow as a person. If i can keep doing poker for say 15k hands/month on the side while investing in various ventures that would be the number 1 option. Ah well, I guess I'll see what happens in the next year or so. Gl all.

what the hell

2008-09-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

Seriously>? Stupid poker

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3147089

And another wtf

http://www.genpets.com/index.php

Slowed down the pace

2008-08-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

Last saturday whitewash decided to buy out of our prop bet for most money made this month. It was $500 to the winner with the condition that he had to play at least 30k hands. Cool by me, I was getting burnt out playing 2k hands a day and breaking even, so ship the $200!

Since he bought out of the bet I've been on a good heater. Up around $8k in the last week over 6400 hands which is pretty sweet. I've basically had the same routine every day, get up, either put in a small sesh and go workout, or just workout and do my sessions afterwards. Working out has gone well, I'm following a pretty sick program in 'The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding', written by the Terminator of course. Monday/Thursday I do chest, back/lats, upper abs, Tuesday/Friday I do shoulders, upper arms, wrists, lower abs, and Wednesday/Saturday I do legs, lower back, upper abs.

So far I've gained around 5-6lbs of mass which is noice. I'm not in a huge blogging mood so I'll just get right on to hands.

Hand 1: I have air oh wait no i don't oh wait you have the top of your range

I'd been owning villain quite a bit so I decide to mix it up and flat in position. Basically my raise looks like air, and I especially like my bet sizing as it gives him room to 3 bet bluff me with overcards which I think he has a lot. I'm pretty glad to get it in and he shows up with AA.

Hand 2: I hate how I played this

Whenever focker would limp I would isolate him like every single time. Villain had been active and hadn't 3 bet me yet. I think this is a steal a very large % of the time. The problem is I didn't even consider flatting, which I think is by far the superior play. I do think 4 betting here is +EV with pretty much my entire range but the problem is Q9s has so much value when I'm in position and I forfeit it by 4 betting him. 4 betting is +EV but it is very high variance when I could call getting a good price, deep, in position against a perceived weak range with a good drawing hand unlikely to be dominated. Bah.

Hand 3: I soul read you but eww NH

Villain had been playing back at me a bunch and I KNEW he was going to make a play at me on that flop. Checking behind to shut him out has its merits but I still feel way in control of the hand. I call with flush outs I will bet, a Q that I think is good and a ton of turns I can put pressure on him. I strongly considered raising the turn which I think is a good play, but I decide to call again keeping my range very wide. I now plan to bet a river K, Q, A, T, spade depending on his action. When he near pots it I think I'm good suuuuch a high % of the time. My hand to him looks like a weak K, mid pair of some sort, or even a small flush draw that I might fold. I think it's a good card for him to bluff and I basically snap it. Bad riv :( but I think it was the right call.

Hmm i've made some good 2 and 3 barrel bluffs this week but can't find them right now. Thats it for now. Oh ya btw I've decided to learn PLO. Been watching a series on deuces which is good and played some 100plo. Fun game so far.

4 betting ranges and 200bb

2008-08-12T10:31:00.001-07:00

The power was out at our house for like 10 hours on sunday so with nothing to do, I crunched some numbers for all my viewers' enjoyment of course. The math may not be perfect but I think the concept is pretty important in deep stacked play.

3 betting/4 betting ranges

I feel in position I can widen my 3 betting ranges as well as 4 betting ranges. With 200bb the dynamic changes dramatically, in that a 3 or 4 bet threatens a larger portion of their stack, and players make more mistakes as opposed to 100bb preflop play, where it has largely become 'solved' to an extent.

First let's look at 4 betting, because 3 betting is so common in today's games and people tend to give lots of respect to a 4 bet over a 3 bet.

With 200bb my 'nuts' range against a decent regular is AA, KK exclusively, with this being shifted to include QQ and AK in some situations. Default, however, is AA and KK. This nuts range is very small, and we have to ask ourselves why it is small. This is because players won't 5 bet shove preflop for 200bb without these two hands. This is in contrast to 100bb play, where it is getting more and more common to felt JJ+, AQ+ or ever wider preflop. In conclusion, if players are only getting in AA and KK preflop, this constitutes only 0.9% of their total hand range.

Let's look at a common 3 betting range. In position:

Tight range: QQ+, AQs+, KQs+, AQo+

(4.1%)

Wide range: TT+, ATs+, KJs+, QTs+, J9s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 76s+, 65s+, 54s+, AKo, 98o, 87o, 76o

(11.6% of total range)

A player with a tight range will probably have stats something like 18/14ish

A player with a wide range will probably have stats something like 25/22ish

4 betting the 18/14 4.1% 3 bettor

We raise CO with xy to $14, they 3 bet us to $52, we 4 bet to:

1.) $110

2.) $125

3.) $140

4.) $150

The pot when I get 3 bet is: $14 + $52 + $2 + $4 = $72

When I 4 bet the 18/14 tight 3 bettor, they fold all of their range except AA, KK. They will likely call QQ and possibly AKs, AKo, but for now the calling 4 bet element isn't going to be looked at.

They fold: 4.1%-0.9% / 4.1% = 78% of their range when I 4 bet.

1.) I'm risking $110 to win ($72-$14) = $58. This 4 bet has to work 1-(58/110+58) = 65.5% of the time to be profitable. If they fold 78% of their range I immediately win: (0.78*$58 - 0.22*$110) = $45.24-$24.20 = $21.04. Winning an extra 5bb is significant here.

4.) Let's look at the highest 4 bet and if it is still profitable. (.78*$58 - .22*$150) = $45.24 - 33 = $12.24

It is still profitable to 4 bet to $150, so if this player's 3 betting range does not significantly change in or out of position (not a terrible assumption considering this player is fairly 'nitty' and how players tend to suck with ranges at 200bb). The conclusion is I want to 4 bet as small as possible to get the job done, but can up the amount of the 4 bet when I will be out of position if called to increase my fold equity.

4 betting the 25/22 11.6% 3 bettor

We raise CO with xy to $14, they 3 bet us to $52, we 4 bet to:

1.) $110

2.) $125

3.) $140

4.) $150

The pot when I get 3 bet is: $14 + $52 + $2 + $4 = $72

We will figure out the EV of 4 betting this player, however we assume they will flat or shove over the 4 bet with QQ+, AKo, AKs. This is not unreasonable against the tight player either, but we assume as least the first few times we do it they will give us greater respect. Against a fundamentally looser player though, we give them a wider range as an act of principal, whether or not they play in a 4 bet pot according to their general game. The true fact of the matter which makes a 4 bet profitable though is % of their 3 bet range they fold to a 4 bet. There will be some players that 3 bet a very tight range but continue on with all of it, making a 4 bet without the 'nuts' bad, and some players who 3 bet a very wide range but fold all except AA and KK, making it extremely profitable, with basically any two cards.

Anyways, away from that tangent. QQ+, AKo, AKs is 2.6% of their total range. They 3 bet with 11.6% of their range and fold 11.6%-2.6% / 11.6% = 78% of their range. Interestingly, this is the same % as what the tight player continues with. Therefore we know the EV of 4 betting.

The question then is how we can force these players to make greater mistakes than they are already making. Assuming they are 'thinking' players, to a point anyways, we know that when we 4 bet them they will be trying to put us on a hand range. The awesome part of this, however, is even if they know we're 4 betting light lots of players won't want to 5 bet shove their entire stack into the pot. They will still concede the pot, and possibly adjust their 3 betting range instead of risking $800 to pick up (maximum) $160 in the pot.

So the answer on how to allow them to make greater mistakes is 1.) They likely won't adjust anyways, making a larger mistake than anticipated, and 2.) Manipulate what they perceive our range to be when in truth is it either a much tighter or wider range. For example, we can 4 bet a 'tight' player with AA, KK, and maybe show the hand the first time. Immediately after that we can open up our 4 betting range and do it repeatedly until they re-adjust. Conversely, we can show a bluff, or perhaps our 4 bet gets called when we have trash. In this situation we should try as hard as we can to get to showdown, provided we don't hit a hand of course, so the opponent can see we are 4 betting light. They perceive our 4 betting range to be very wide so we can re adjust by shifting our 4 betting range to more 'nut' hands, as well as widening that 'nut' range. This helps in two ways 1.) They incorrectly 4 bet us 'wider' when we have a tighter range and 2.) They feel they can get us to fold AK, QQ preflop when we have in fact added those hands to our 'nut' range preflop and are willing to felt.

It goes without saying that being in position is a great advantage. But how advantageous is it when we are most of the time ending the hand preflop anyways? The answer may be that facing a 4 bet in position, a player may flat more of their range than out of position. The next question then is how much of their range is 'more'? If they start flatting more hands, we can adjust by either 4 betting less, or 4 betting a larger amount. We know that 4 betting to $150 is still profitable and if it forces the player to fold rather than flat it is something we can live with. It makes sense that out of position a player will flat less and reraise more if they are 'thinking'. I think this difference is fairly negligable though, especially when we first start to 4 bet. The other part of this question is that most players 3 bet a tighter range out of position, meaning they fold less to the 4 bet. Again, however, this is a corollary as they 3 bet tighter but fold more out of position and 3 bet wider in position but tend to flat more.

The next thing to figure out is what type of hands we want to be 4 betting. It is fairly common knowledge that having a polarised 4 betting range is generally best. There is 'generally' no point giving up the value of AJs by turning it into a bluff preflop. The terms 'nut' and 'air' or 'bluff' range preflop should be taken literally, meaning AA, KK nut range and possibly a 74o type bluff range. However, even if we are 4 betting a wide range, these situations won't come up all that often, so I contend that early on in a session, 4 betting any hand is ok as the situation and flow of the match matter more than the cards. This is because players tend to give more respect at the beginning of a session. I still would rather fold AJs or AJo OOP, for the most part, than 4 bet it but 4 betting a hand like A5o is perfectly fine imo because it is generally pure trash anyways.

Vegas, Winnipeg, Home, Grinding

2008-07-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

Yo yo JB's back. It's been awhile but I have the excellent excuse of traveling. Woot. I got back from Australia on the 25th of June, chilled at home for 2 days then went to Vegas for a couple of weeks. Vegas was pretty sweet, expensive but w/e that's the life of a baller i guess. The housemates were pretty sweet (like I can say anything else eh, they're the only ones that read this lol). Nah they were cool we had some good times yo.

I made some moneys in Vegas - $1710 after expenses...but that doesn't count flights so let's say like $1110. Not bad for two weeks of pretty much straight spending.

After Vegas I went to Winnipeg, where I spent the first 18 years of my life. Went to my friends sisters' wedding, which was a pretty ballin affair and hung out with the old friends for a week. It was cool seeing everyone and how they had changed. I think I overestimate how 'others' have changed, because I think I'm really different now from what I was 6 months ago. I guess just my perception of others has changed.

Now that I'm home it's been kind of boring...but it's not a big deal as I've grinded a good amount and finally have the time to ship the moneys, or SHIP THE COOKIES!!! In the last 6 days I've played around 8k hands which is pretty good for me and I'm finally getting into a routine. That works out to around 1300 hands/day which is good but I'm looking to increase it. If I can play 2k hands/day I'll really be happy. Mind you 2k hands/day of A-game poker, not any other level.

I've played some interesting pots the last week so here's a few hands.

Hand 1: Folded a set wow

Playing deep on full tilt, villain in question is what I read to be a good solid regular. His leading range on that flop is any set, straight, straight draw/pair, flush draw, but the lead felt strong. I elected to call and play a safe turn. The timing how he bet the turn and the fact that he led strong into 4 and 2 players respectively looked super strong to me. 100bb I just stick it in however I really felt he wasn't bluffing. At the time I felt great about the fold; now I think it's pretty weak, but gotta trust our reads I guess.

Hand 2: 3-bet on dry flop = bluff

Villain is a marginally good regular, standard kind of aggro but limps a lot and takes weird lines. I raised the flop 1.) For value, 2.) It's fairly deceptive and 3.) He'd probably read it as weak. He 3 bet me and I thought it looked super bluffy but this deep and him raising UTG and the fact that I think he has either air or 'nuts' makes a call better. Turn isn't great as it hits his range much better than mine and an AQ or KQ could have bluffed the flop and now is ahead. River is nice, his bet looks like a value bet but I'm getting good odds and his range is way wider than AA-JJ, AQ, KQ so I call!

Hand 3: I have no fold button

Kinda cool hand here. Villain is weird - aggressive yet spewey, minraises a fair amount, overvalues draws - basically a break-even to losing regular I think. Once again, flop raise on dry board = he must be bluffing. I have a note on him he loves to bluff as well so yay obv. I call for value yo. I'm clearly don't have a strong enough read to 3 bet/call shove this deep. On the flop the only 3's in his range are A3 or 43 and 55 is possible but unlikely because of the timing of his raise. On the turn if he's bluffing he continues with his entire range so I obv call. River he insta pots it and aside from a 7 I think this is the best card in the deck for me. If he did have A3 I really doubt he would insta pot it as a 5 is definitely in my range. For 'deception' reasons I also doubt he would insta pot the river with a 5 unless he's leveling me. So pretty much 95% of his range here is air, so call!

Hand 4: 350bb deep makes decisions difficult

Carrotsnake is...carrotsnake obv. Tough villain. I'd been running over the table a fair amount and villain had been super quiet, really strange for the type of style I thought he played. 5 betting here is for value and I think it's fine although I also think even though he's been quiet this is a great spot for a resteal given both our table images. The problem with 5 betting is any flop without a K in it is fairly scary to me as 'air' preflop can hit any board, and deceptively at that. Flop is ok, not great, but I see no other option than to call. If I read him for weakness at this point, a small flop raise may induce a shove but I think I'd see a lot of nut hands. Turn/river look standard but I did not want to put much more money in the pot as he knows exactly what i have pretty much and I have no idea what he has. After the hand he said AK and said he was going to check raise all in on the turn if I had of bet which is one of the reasons why I opted to check behind. Also he said he debated shoving the river, to which I replied I would immediately puke. Lol. Good thing he checked river.

Hand 5: Didn't think that was in your range sir

Title says it all. I really didn't think blitz would cc AKs there although in retrospect I don't think it's bad at all. Hand is standard until the river. Without AK in his range I really didn't know what to put him on except a mid pair 77-TT. I don't know why I thought I'd get value there but apparently I like 'thin' value bets. Thin in this case meaning spewy obv.

Hand 6: Weird play by me

This hand is basically all game flow, although working out the numbers against Noel here I think its -EV. I'd been raising a ton since I sat down a couple orbits ago and already have a laggy image, or at least I feel the others perceive me this way. The guy to my left gave me the impression that he cold called tons of raises and was just a spewy fish. Right when I raised and got the cold caller I thought to myself, "This is a perfect spot to squeeze." If I was in Noel's position or in the BB I think I should squeeze a huge range because of my image and my read on the cold caller. I didn't take into account a couple important pieces of info, however. 1.) Noel is pretty tight I think although this read isn't super solid and 2.) Most importantly, he told me this month over 20k hands he's lost money. This tells me he's probably playing solid, careful, and not making any fancy plays. Against someone who squeezes often here the play is good, but against Noel it is not +EV.

Hand 7: Similar to Hand 3

Pretty much the same as hand 3, except my flop raise represents a wider range and we basically have no history. Don't think he was very good, maybe just a tilting regular or something. By the river my range is polarized for the most part though I do think his call was quite 'hero'.

Hand 8: Lol the river T is my nemesis

Just for fun!

That's enough for today. Maybe if I blog more often I won't have to put 8 hands in every time. I'm excited about poker for the rest of July and August. I feel my game is very sharp and I'm able to put in a ton of hands. In August whitewash and I have a prop bet on who can make the most money. Just $500, nothing huge but definitely will be satisfying when I own his soul with like $5k more in winnings. Good luck to everyone, unless you're at my table ;)

Vegas baby :) Life is good

2008-06-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

Yo yo. Long time no blog, I know, but i have excuses. June pokerwise hasn't been good, but I've played probably 4k hands total and down $3kish. I've played decent but with such a small sample size anything can happen. Throughout June i was busy writing exams and traveling. Lol I wrote an exam on the 12th and my last one was on the 18th so from the 12th-17th I went to Surfers Paradise with Nate the great. It was a pretty sweet trip yo.

I wrote my last exam which went well and in my last week I just hung out, celebrated a few birthdays, including my own, and just basically had a good time. It was kinda gay to leave, as I made amazing amazing friends, but getting home was a cool feeling. Honestly lifelong friends from Aus baby!

Anyways getting home was cool after those massive flights. I turned the corner at Kelowna airport and everyone was there waiting for me. Baby laura even had a big smile and walked over to me with the help of my Dad. Cool stuff!

The couple days at home were good; I slept very irregularly, met some friends, had dinner with friends of the family and basically just hung out. It sucked that I was only home two days, but gotta get working in Vegas! haha.

Vegas is awesome and so increadibly hot. I jumped in the pool and was dry in a few minutes lol. Last night whitewash and I checked out the strip and went to the Wynn to own some live donks. We sat at the same 5/10 table and both had pretty great sessions. Whitewash, hereby known as Steve, stacked a guy like 4 hands in and was fairly quiet from then on. I took a different approach; getting a lot of hands but basically just grinding up the entire time.

I finished up just over $800 and Steve up around $1300. There were a few interesting characters at the table as well. Some psycho who'd played on High Stakes Poker called Boston...somebody. I forget the other name. He sucked and just was the weirdest looking and acting guy ever. There were a few foreigners all together directly to the left of us at the table who generally weren't very good. There was one guy that I thought was decent but played a pot with him and changed my mind a little bit.

Also p3achy k33n, otherwise known as Eric Liu, sat at the table for awhile which was kinda cool. He didn't play any pots though and left pretty quick, talking to Brad Booth near the 10/20 tables. Lol Brad Boothaments.

Some hands of note. I call $40 in the SB with boston and some other random in the pot with 22. Flop comes 2Qx all clubs, I check call boston's bet. Turn is a blank and he bets larger, but I'd seen him splash around a ton so I wasn't folding. I decided I wasn't folding on a blank river either. River comes blank and we both check and I take the pot.

I cc JJ from an Ep opener who seemed pretty snug. Flop comes QQx, he bets small I call. Turn is an A, he bets small again - around $90 I think - and I feel he could be bluffing that card a fair amount, but also has some aces in his range so I just call. River is the third Q and he bets out $250. I thought forever but figured he'd never value bet KK, JJ, 99 and down ever and he doesn't have man bluffs in his range just because he can't expect me to fold a full house very often, so I folded. I like how I played this.

Strange hand here. I raise QQ UTG and get a call by one of the foreigners who I think could be good or just standard live donkishness. I really don't know at this point. Another player calls who is a donk and I'm not afraid of at all. Flop comes T94 with two spades. I bet $90 and both call. Turn comes a blank, a 7 i think, and it's kind of a tricky spot. Both could be slowplaying but they also have a wide range of draws and marginal pairs so I have to bet again. I actually forget what I bet but the pot was around $400 so I think it was a $240-$300 bet. Foreigner calls and other guy folds. Now I don't know what to put foreigner on. I think he probably raises a set by now, but he could hope other guy overcalls. AA and KK are unlikely but that means he's calling with a hand like JJ, 88, 77, or a T, which I think is bad and goes against my initial read of him being decent. River is another blank and I think about it and decide to go for value and bet kind of small, $250. He folds after some though. Maybe a flush draw?

I isolated a fair amount and took some stabs but for the most part just played snug tight aggressive poker. Last hand of note I cc AKo to a snug player's EP raise. There are 2 or 3 callers behind me. Flop comes QQJr, raiser checks to me I obv check planning to give up. Turn comes a T, um nice? I call initial raiser's pretty much pot sized bet of $130 and am planning to puke if anybody behind me raises. They all fold and we see a blank river. Raiser checks to me and I bet around $120, pretty small and he says show me AK and calls with KQ. Lol. Could have gotten a lot more value, unfortunately.

That's it for the live shenanigans right now. I quite enjoyed it and will definitely be playing some more in the next little while. Today we're going to check out Rehab, a massive pool party with oodles of Figa, good drinks, and basically just an amazing time. Heard there was a big line though, and also heard cover is anywhere from $30 to $100. Hope its the former.

After that we'll get daniell aka cntgetmedown from the airport and I'm going to go watch my buddy's dad, we'll call him Sreid play a $1500 HORSE event at the WSOP. Should be pretty cool to watch and check out the Rio as I haven't been there yet. Good luck everyone, Vegas baby! Ciao!!

Running hot, but.....

2008-05-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

Ok I just spewed a massive 200bb 5/10 buyin so I'm extremely tilted and annoyed at myself, but this shouldn't be a downer post because I've been running super hot the last week and a half. Basically a $15k upswing after the first 8k hands of the month being break even.

It's easy to believe you're playing well when running hot because your thin value bets work, your bluff's get them to fold, and your big hands get paid off. I still feel most of this month I've been playing awesome though; it's been going really well. I've played my A game a ton this month which is what I strive for. The costs of not playing my A game are huge, as just evidenced by the massive pot I lost because for a minute I completely lost my head. You know those times your brain isn't working at all and you're on autopilot, or make a play without any reasoning just because you 'feel' like it.

Or knowing what the right play is but that little voice inside your head convincing you the opposite is true. This was an expensive lesson that really shows how important playing my A game is to my bottom line.

On a more positive note I had my biggest day ever on saturday. I played 1300 or so hands and made $4600. Wheeeeeeeee! It was pretty sweet and I celebrated by spending huge amounts in a store hahaha. Got a couple jackets and a sweet pair of shoes. Balllleeerrr!!!

I'm way behind on my prop bet with roomate for number of hands played but hopefully I'll put in a few long sessions 6 tabling PLAYING MY A GAME OBVVVVVVV. Lol I'm tilted. Ok lets look at some hands.

Hmm the winners seems to be fairly standard, let's look at some marginal spots and spewy spots I got myself into.

Hand 1: Not sure about stack off

A couple hands ago i was in the exact same situation with the same hand. I squeezed, donk here called i c bet small AA4 f and he insta shoved. This time i elected to call because he'd been playing fast, I think would play back at me a decent amount, and I feel decently ahead of both their ranges anyways. He overbets the flop but really I could interpret that both ways; the slight problem is we're fairly deep at 150bb. I decided to get it in as he could show up with a ton of weaker Q's, J's, or str8/flush draws. Unfortunately he insta shoved and showed me AA. Not sure if it's a cooler or not. I think 100bb is completely standard.

Ok let's look at the hands I completely lost my head and was daydreaming or w/e.

Hand 2: Seriously, what was I thinking?

Basically for some reason my head said 'bluff' so thats what I did! Don't like it.

Hand 3: Terrible, terrible spew monkey I hate this so much this title is getting long but my frustration for this hand is so awful I feel horrible about it.

Ok villain in question is massive donk, but not a huge spewmonkey stack shover guy, he limps a ton and just spews in smaller pots. Flop is great his range is super super wide. Turn I think I should chk behind and bet river or a line similar. I dont like betting that much against 2 opponents because I've committed myself against IYAO and I'm almost always dead if he shoves. If he does shove, I've got to call and possibly be stuck against donk. River I think it's an extremely thin value bet, if it is for value and not entirely spew. I plan on folding to any action, obv, but then he insta min raises me and my head goes out the window. Basically here's my thought process (or lack of)...."OMG he min raised me AHHHHH I HATE LIFE oh wait what if there's a .00000005% chance I'm good POT ODDS OMG MAYBE I SHOULD CALL NO WAIT THEN I'D ONLY HAVE $200 BEHIND WHY DON'T I SHOVE." Pretty much it followed by massive tilt and the .01% of my brain still working using my hand to shut down all tables.

Hand 3: Let's end with a little fun

Manute is donkish and had been in his aggro mode so I take a flop in position with a suited ace playing deep. LOL MIN BET FLOP I CALL OBV. Mmm excellent turn as well I think I'll raise your insta pot bet. LOL NUTS RIV OH WAIT YOU SHOVE OK I'LL GET IT IN 100% good. :)

Apart from some pokers I've been kind of busy with school as it's wrapping up and getting a little hectic. Decided I'm going to go to the Gold Coast with my roomate Nate and go crazy ya ya! Go surfing again as well which will be sweet. That's all for now dudes hope you enjoyed my massive spew and I'm still extremely tilted but I suppose I learned a very expensive lesson. Here's to A game poker!

Playing, making money, making mistakes :(

2008-05-05T01:50:00.000-07:00

I've done well with my hands bet so far, as I've played 3352 hands so far in May and am up $1400. Made some mistakes though so here's a few hands.

Hand 1: Lol river bluff

This was near the beginning of the session and I'd seen villain be fairly aggressive. I like to come out aggressive so the 4 bet is fine imo. I decide to check flop as I hardly ever get called by worse and a ton of hands raise me off this flop. I decide on the turn to get value on the river as I don't think he'll call two barrels with weaker. By the river I don't think he's very strong and put KK and QQ with the club as a very small part of his range. I pull the donk move and shove and he folds. yea yea.

Hand 2: Either very thin or spew

Same villain as above a few hands after I'd stacked him. Same reasoning on flop check. Turn I go for value and he makes a quick check raise. I really doubt he'd try a check raise twice with a made flush or set. I've shown that I'm fairly passive in rr pots which made me think he'd just bet turn for value if he went for a flop check raise that didn't work out. That said I don't know if my shove is good. I put him on a lot of pair and draw type hands, but his line in general didn't make much sense. I was a little worried about 66, but felt there were many other hands in his range.

Hand 3: Like this line

Preflop and flop are standard. I don't think he folds a Q if I bet turn but think he'll value bet it if I check to him. QQ, JJ, AQ, and possibly KQ are not likely as he cold called preflop. I think QJ probably raises the flop, but can't be sure. I also got the impression that he was weak due to the speed of his flop call. My line looks very strong, he folds most TP, 2nd pair type hands, and I have plenty of equity if called. As it turns out I got the money in with 61% equity which means I got the job done I guess.

Hand 4: Monkey aggro spew or aggro +EV?

I'd been super super aggressive at this table, 3 betting relentlessly with some 4 betting. Villain hadn't 3 bet me much but I could tell he was getting a bit tilted and looking for a spot. With the table now 3 handed I think this is a good spot for him to 3 bet me. I have three options here I think. 4 bet small and call shove, 4 bet shove, and call to see a flop.

Let's say he's 3 betting us with a range of: 77+,A8s+,KTs+,Q9s+,J9s+,T9s,98s,ATo+,KJo+, this turns out to be 13.9% of total hands. If I 4 bet small, he shoves with 99+,AJs+,AKo, which is 4.5% of total hands. If I 4 bet shove, he calls with TT+,AQs+,AKo, which is 3.8% of total hands.

Pot before my action is: 14 + 48 + 4 = $66
If i 4 bet small I'm risking $155 to win $66 which needs to work ~70% of the time to be profitable. He shoves with 4.5% of hands which is (4.5/13.9) = 32% of the time. So this is a losing play based on his range. In retrospect if I wanted to 4 bet small it should have been to $125ish, which would make this play profitable. That said I did make a preflop mistake, but when he shoves with the range I put him on I have 35% equity and only need 32% equity to make the call profitable.

If I 4 bet shove I need it to work 88% of the time to be profitable. He callas with 3.8%/13.9% which is 27% of the time, so 4 bet shoving isn't profitable either.

I think I should have called preflop and played a flop. Either that or 4 bet smaller to $125ish. Coolio.

Hand 5: Ok here comes the spew

I really hate the situation I put myself in here, and hate even more the next hand which was played against the same villain. Preflop and flop bet is standard. His raise was almost instant and looked extremely fishy to me. I thought I was ahead a fair % of the time but couldn't shove so my options were call or fold. If I call I have to face at the very least a turn bet essentially turning my hand face up. Or I could be behind already and be putting the money in bad. Good result but I really hated calling off money out of position not knowing whether I was good or not. I gave him total control of the hand.

Hand 6: Yes, this is more spewy

Same villain. His timing preflop told me he didn't have a big hand as it was an almost insta 4 bet. Either way I think I should fold preflop. I'd been beating him up a bit, up over $1k against him so I should just tangle with him when in position. Either way I should fold this flop. Once again his timing was weak, but I gave him total control of the hand again and this time he fired another barrel. Bad bad play by me.

I lost another hand where I should have folded to the river raise, as his timing and size of bet told me he had a big hand, but I talked myself into calling and timed out during the call anyways, so I don't have the HH. He told me he had a full house though, which I believe. So last session there was approximately $400 in mistakes. Ah well, live and learn eh. GL all.

April results and May prop bet

2008-05-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

So April was a pretty frustrating month. I ended up around $1900 after 15600 hands. Lots of swings, some bad play, but most of all I think I just ran a bit cold. I tried another $215 Step 4 WSOP qualifier on stars in my futile effort to qualify for the main event. I won Step 4, Step 5 and played like an idiot in the $2k buy in Step 6 tourney. Stupid tourneys. Stupid me actually. I lost focus for a minute and busted and wiping out all the work I put into the earlier qualifiers.

I also lost a bet with my buddy macky as he played more hands than I did. When I see him in July I owe him a fancy dinner, which all in all probably only works out to $100 which is aight, I just wish I'd beat him.

I have another prop bet this month this time with my roommate. I have to play at least 26k hands in May to win the bet, with the condition that I get a 2k hand leeway if he unsuccessfully loses 5lbs. So if he doesn't manage to lose the 5lbs I only have to play 24k hands to win the bet. If I lose the bet, I owe him 5 slabs of whatever beer he wants. (Slab = 24 beers). So basically with the nazi alcohol pricing in oz-town that'll be around $300. This bet will be more expensive to me if I lose and will include shame as well lol as he'll probably just say, "Hey Jeff, go get me beer loser" and I'll hate life and go spend some moneys on his beer. haha. Also I need to make money so the bet is in my favour as it should force me to play.

Coaching has gone pretty well; I'm certainly enjoying it. My student is doing pretty well at 100NL which he just moved up to. All he has to do is recognize 3 betting situations better and play a little less OOP and he'll be crushing I think.

Here's some hands from April.

Hand 1: So torn up about this

I really don't know what to think about this hand. I'd just donked off a buy in to this donk pretty much last hand. He was playing 57/14 and his min raises are strong. Flop is good, turn I don't think I can fold. River I'm getting 3-1, so yea, call, but should I really? Donk does not fire three barrels with this timing with top pair, top two, etc. I don't know.

Hand 2: Cooler imo

This one isn't a standard cooler. Villain is 50/8 over 50 hands or so. He bets and calls raises with anything at all. We're a little deep here. Flop raise is good and on the turn I decided I was going to felt it even though the board wasn't the greatest. River I think he still calls a J or a 9 and don't think aces up is very likely. Maybe a check call to snap off missed draws? Meh, I think I miss too much value.

Hand 3: This is a mistake

I'd just stacked DIENITS a couple hands ago for a full 2x buy in. He is a pretty good regular, probably a fairly big winner. I think he feels the same about me. I feel like he could be tilting a bit at this point. My line looks like a steal, although I wouldn't do this with just any two. I think I need to shove here.

Hand 4: Yup, last hand really was a mistake

Same villain on another table. I'm steaming a bit thinking over the QQ hand and decide to go with AK here. Really think I should have shoved the queens.

Hand 5: Abuse with 3 bets = spew to me!

This hand really shows what happens when you pound and pound someone and they don't know how to react to it. I gladly call the 3 bet pre as I think 4 betting is a little too light and I expect him to play badly postflop. Flop is awesome obviously, and I make a raise that is sure to completely tilt him. We're pretty deep here as well. Turn I follow up with a $260 bet into a ~$400 pot that looks a bit weak. Notice we're 200bb deep here. He shoves and I gladly call and get it in with 100% equity. Can't beat that.

Hand 6: Same table, same situation

Villain here is another decent regular who maybe calls a bit light OOP. I'd been abusing him a lot with 3-bets as well. Calling preflop with JTs OOP isn't very good imo unless he's going to be making moves on me a lot of the time. Pretty standard flop.

Hand 7: Your line makes no sense

Same villain as above. We're 300bb deep here, it's a very small 3-bet, I have position, and he may be tilting so it's an easy call. Flop is great, a call is standard. I pick up a draw on the turn but feel he is weak and decide to take a check turn bet river line. I value bet the river and he makes a quick raise. Note that I bet $75 into a pot of around $220, as I put him on a small-mid pair and wanted a call. His raise made no sense to me. He's decent so I really think when we're this deep he would want to build the pot earlier with a big hand. Also I made a small bet on the river so he could be raising just thinking I'm weak. The only legitimate hand I could put him on was 66; so it was air or 66 precisely. I made the call and snapped off his bluff.

I'm excited to put in hands in May. School will get a little hectic but no worries, it's time to make money :). Later all.

Thoughts

2008-04-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a thread on 2p2 and dodgy's blog. What makes a great player? Why do some excel and some fail? What do I need to do to be a success in my eyes in poker? Sure, I can make decent money right now, but there's so much higher to get to. What do I think about my chances of 'making it'? 100%, if I work hard enough and smart enough. So do I want to be a success? Yes, but at what cost? What does it take to make it? I guess defining what I think a success is would be useful. Let's say a 5/10 and 10/20 excellent regular. A few hours a day playing these stakes at my A-game would be $500k+/year. So what does it cost to make it to this level of success? 1000's of hands, sweating/coaching sessions, theoretical understanding, practical experience, bankroll management, tilt and emotional control, the ability to think differently and creatively about the game, etc. Do I possess these qualities? To be honest, most of them I do. Basically the only thing holding me back from making 5 figga's consistently a month is the number of hands I put in. Why am I not completely motivated though? It feels like I am wasting this opportunity. But the achievement of 'making it' is just more money in the bank. So? I'm not arrogant to say money doesn't mean anything to me. If I did I would just be a spoiled 'rich' kid, relatively speaking, who has never had a problem with money. But how does my life change if I make $50k this year or $200k? No, I don't buy a car, I don't spend it much differently than I do now. So what's the motivation? Well for one I need to make money to provide for my future. Poker is such an opportunity. What I want poker to do for me is to provide the cash needed for my investments and businesses. So the more money I make now gives me so many more opportunities in a couple years for business. When I look at what I've done this year I'm pretty sick. 4 hours a day will average out to, lets say, 1100 hands. 1100 hands * 30 = 33000 hands per month. At 4ptbb/100 at 2/4 that's $10560/month. I expect to play higher levels, possibly achieve a higher winrate, etc. That's a ton of money I'm giving up if I'm only playing 10000 hands/month. Alright I just drew up a schedule that I posted on my wall in front of my comp. I have playing times/week listed at 28.5 right now. Should be good. It's time to get serious yo. Ciao.

15k break even yo

2008-04-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

Yup, down 2.5 buyins over the last 15k hands. Not a huge deal, just gets slightly frustrating. Anyways, life update. Last week went up to Cairns for a holiday. It was pretty sweet; totally tropical up there. Went snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, bungy jumping, and clubbing a bit. I'd say the highlight of the trip was bungy jumping. Man that was so sweet. I ended up jumping 5 times instead of the 1 I thought I'd do. haha. It was a long enough trip though; always good to get back.

I've picked up a student for poker, a guy who just moved up to 100nl. I really enjoy coaching and everything I've heard about it helping your own game is true. Being forced to think critically and explain concepts I've never really talked about before has given me a better understanding of why to make certain plays. We've done 5 hours of lessons so far.

Here's a few hands to look at.

Hand 1: Tough river spot 4 bet pot

Powerjuicer is a good regular and probably views me as spewy sometimes postflop. I'd 3 bet him 3 times already with me winning pre once, post once, and him calling me down once. My table image is loose aggressive. I'm pretty happy to make a call here in position with QQ. Flop and turn are fine I think. I play TT, JJ, KK, AA, 99, 88 exactly the same, so my overall range looks fairly strong. On the river I'm getting $1122 to $336 or 3.3 to 1. I need to be good ~23% of the time on the river to make the call profitable. I think I can make this call because my range isn't extremely polarized to huge hands and he knows it. He could also be getting frustrated with me and put out a bluff sized as a value bet.

Hand 2: Effective nuts imo

Opponent is a spewy fish of sorts which is why I'm playing him HU so deep. It's been a super aggressive match and I've learned not to bluff him and play IP by calling his 3 bets very often and 4 betting light. I pick up a great hand in a great situation and am happy that he calls my 4 bet. Flop is standard. Turn wasn't great as he definitely peels with an 8. I'm not sure if he calls a turn and river bet with a 9 either. My plan was to chk turn bet river. River there is still value on the table, despite him showing me K8. I'm fine with this hand.

Hand 3: Lol drawing dead

Completely standard imo.

Hand 4: Not sure if this was the right play

This is the same match against villain who flatted my 4 bet OOP with K8. He made that raise almost instantly, and almost instantly it looked fishy to me. On what logic would he make that raise with a set? I'm folding to that raise at least 95% of the time. There's no special reason for him to think I'm strong here; we'd been 3 betting each other back and forth a ton. My flop bet is completely standard. Once I decided he was bluffing, though, I wasn't sure what to do. He's still got around $1k left behind which, if I shove, I don't think he calls unless he has a set or a weirdly played KK or AA. If I call though I put myself in weird spots as he can show up with weird hands and I wouldn't know how to proceed. Tough spot.

I've been thinking about game theory a bit more recently, as coaching has forced me to, lol. I think the 4 betting dynamic changes with 200bb and deeper. As I nearly always play 200bb on absolute, this is really important. So let's make some assumptions.

1. Good players 3 bet less OOP with 200bb than with 100bb
2. 2/4 $800 stacks
3. I'm BTN, villain BB
4. Good regular

I open button for $14, he 3 bets me to $54, I 4 bet to $130.

Let's look at a good regulars 3 betting range from the BB, remembering I feel it is tighter than the same player's range with 100bb.

88+,ATs+,KJs+,QJs,JTs,T9s,AJo+,KQo

This range is 9.5% of total hands.

When I 4 bet, I expect him to fold all hands except

QQ+,AKs,AKo, which is 2.6% of total hands.

So when he 3 bets and I 4 bet he folds 1-(2.6%/9.5%) = ~73% of the time.

The pot is $70 before I 4 bet and I will 4 bet to $130 so I'm risking $130 to win $70 so I need to be good approximately 65% of the time. Help me out if the math is wrong.

73%-65% = 8% * $70 = $5.60 profit every time I do it.

Interesting stuff, I'll have to implement 4 bets more often in position. This will help balance my range as well because I want to 4 bet AA KK QQ AK for value and be able to felt them.

Coolabah.

JB Returns

2008-04-12T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all, been a long time. I've been really busy with school.....haha ok maybe not that busy with school. Unfortunately it is picking up a bit though. I have been busy socializing, exploring the city, going to Sydney; basically going out almost every night. March I didn't get in hardly any hands at all, I think around 6k total. Pathetic eh. I also had a 19 buyin downswing during March. [x] Swongs.

That said, I'm kind of proud that I didn't play more hands in March. I always want to be playing my A-game, or else what's the point? A few times I wanted to play but was either super tired, buzzed, hung over, etc. I still with I'd found more time overall to get in hands though.

As April approached I realized I needed to get in way more hands so I made a prop bet on who can play the most hands with a friend of mine, a micro stakes baller by the name of macky87. Whoever plays the most hands in April gets a baller steak/lobster/whatever they want dinner on the other's tab when we see each other in July. We couldn't exactly do a $$ bet as the large difference in stakes will not make it fair.

I've had another lesson or two from hookem, which have gone pretty well. I'm still down lifetime getting coached though, haha. I told Brian he should implement a refund program, or take our losses while he's sweating us. Surprisingly he wasn't too up for it.

I now give to you, for your viewing pleasure, the most entertaining and baffling way I've yet to lose a buy in.

lol rigged

So basically here's the rundown.

Preflop: 81% favourite
Flop: 91% dog
Turn: 98% favourite
River: 1 outer lolz

weird hand

I play the hand on the turn like I have 99-QQ and looking for pot control. His small bet could be one designed to get me to fold for a cheap price, or look weak so I raise it. I think most of the range he puts me on by the river is 99-QQ and he shoves to try and get me off it. Right logic? I guess better knowing his 3 bet calling range would help. I think him calling pre with that is pretty big spew.

i confess tilt

This guy had been 3 betting me non stop, shoving over my 4 bets, etc. I was ready to take a stand against him either with a big hand or a play in position in a rr pot. I chose a pretty bad spot though. If this was me on BTN him SB or BB then it's ok i think, but even a villain as aggro as him will know I'm about ready to fight back, and won't be 3 betting my UTG raises light. Even by the timing of his play, right when I clicked the all in button I cringed. Bad bad.

fancy play syndrome works

Opp is decent TAGish player so I decided to make a play at this pot. When I raise flop 95% of my range is a set, FD or AJ, so I figure he has to fold most of the time. When he called I felt I could bluff any spade, and bet any 4, A, K, or maybe Q. Turn is a bad card as I don't think he's flatting my raise with less than a jack. He repops a big draw and set most of the time I think. River is nice obviously, and I'm 85% sure he has AJ here. I don't think I like his call very much. My line doesn't make a ton of sense but it's not a great board texture to bluff and his line looks exactly like what he has.

That's it for today, I'll try and blog more often though. Once I do it I like to do it until I make an excuse not to do it then I don't for a long time then the cycle begins again. So be prepared for many blog entries, whether you like it or not.

Australia is cool

2008-03-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

Nuff said? I really like it here in Melbourne so far. The city is awesome, and by far the biggest one I've been in. There is so much going on all the time. It's still summer here so I've been burnt a few times already but am starting to get a bit of a tan, believe it or not.

I've met loads of awesome people and basically just been having a good time. Been partying too much, but ah well, that's what I'm supposed to do. Its been basically one big party since I got here. I booked a trip to Cairns to check out the Great Barrier Reef in April with some friends.

Poker went well in February as I made approximately $8k over 8k hands, which is obviously above expectation. March, however, has been awful in the two sessions I've played. I'm not worried though as I've only played 1602 hands. I am down $6300 right now though so it does sting a little. Especially now when I'm spending so much.

I had a 4.5 hour lesson with hookem on monday where I lost 3400. There weren't any particularly tough hands, it was just one of those sessions where I couldn't hit anything against fish and when KK ran into AA three times.

Yesterday I started the session off badly by making a tilted spew of a buyin that was really awful. I came back though and played some solid poker. Too bad I got sucked out on a ton again. No worries, that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is the bad plays. Out of the $6300 I'm down $1000 in bad/-EV plays. The rest are coolers or set ups or me running into the very top of a villain's range. I'd like to play tilt free poker from now on, obviously easier said than done, but mentally I'm in a good place right now and I feel like my edge over these players is huge.

Here's some hands.

Like our line here

Even though we are so deep, I like our line in this hand. 4 betting is pretty standard, but if he 5 bet shoves we basically puke and flip a coin. Opp is good and not too loose. Brian suggested to call the 3 bet and call him down, provided an ace doesn't come. We want to be playing this hand like 77-JJ would. I think we definitely accomplished this goal in our line. If we have a set we raise the turn for sure. Ace is a good river card because it's unlikely he bets AK twice, and it makes AA more unlikely for him. When he shoved river we both thought he was trying to get us off our perceived range of 99-QQ. His shove makes no sense with AA and AK is a weird line. I think he just hit his set on river and didn't know what to do and shoved. I still like our line though.

2nd nuts against donk

I like my flop line against this mega donk. Turn is the effective nuts. I really didn't think he'd shove over my turn bet with the nuts, but then again, he is a donk.

Setup against donk!!!....ewww turn

Both villains are donks here but the one who shoved is especially so. I am so happy to put my money in here I might as well have done cartwheels. Bad turn.

Hmm don't know...

This hand is against enormous donk. I was calling anything in position against him he was that bad. His line was call flop with any two and fold turn. We lead flop to get value and check turn with plan to bet river. His turn bet surprises us but we're still huge here. I don't much like our river play. Either bet something like $100 and give him room to shove over or just check raise all in or check call his stack. I don't think we can ever fold here against him.

Bad play by me

This stack was a spew. When villain raises me on the flop, later Brian said I probably should have just folded. His raising range includes combo draws, sets, and straights. He only calls his KJ type hands and folds most air. I'm either crushed or marginal EV either way. I don't know if I can just fold to his raise, but calling kind of sucks as well. Crappy to put the money in effectively drawing dead.

Like this line

We're really deep with decent villain and haven't 3 betted him much at all. This felt like a good time and is a good hand to do so with. We feel he 4 bets AK a good % of the time. With our flop and turn line we fold out all of the Ax hands all the way up to AQ we think. AK doesn't fold but we put that at a smallish % of his range. Our line looks very strong and folds out nearly everything. We almost fired river but I'm really glad we didn't as only his strongest range calls two barrels and he's never folding river.

Cleeeeeaaarrr cooler

I check flop because even donk doesn't peel very light here. Turn by checking I get value from air and get more money in the pot if he has a K because he's never folding. Nice river sir. P.S. Nice turn river sir.

Yes, he really did call/shove with J4...but it was sooooted!

I think title explains all.

And a lot of these type hands

No worries though, I'm playing fine for the most part and look to eliminate tilty plays from my game. I have the discipline to leave when I get tilted, so I just have to recognize when it's coming on. That's all for today, sorry it took so long to post again. Ciao!

Moving to Australia tomorrow...oh my

2008-02-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

The day is here, and man did it come fast. Tomorrow in like 15 hours I head off to Melbourne, Australia for 5 months. It's strange how I feel right now. I am excited to go, yet apprehensive, sad that I am leaving especially now, with family stuff going on, but I know that this will be an awesome experience and I will be different when I come back. I'm confident in my ability to handle whatever gets thrown my way, but I realize I have a lot of maturing to do. haha. This trip will be great, and I am planning a eurotrip in summer '09 already. Now is the time to go, to see the world while I am still impressionable.

Anyways, enough reflection. Poker has gone well in the minuscule 4k hands I've played. I'm up around $5400 which is awesome. My lessons this month have gone great, especially the last one on sunday. We really started up with a LAG image and had great tables. We lost a couple of coolers at the beginning and was down for awhile but we adjusted to the game flow and caught some cards to really capitalize on our image at the tail end of the session. At one point I was sitting on $4k on a 3/6 table. I think I ended up booking a $2200 win during the 2.5 hours or so.

No hands today as I'm a little too excited to be concentrating on poker, and I don't expect I'll play much over the next couple of weeks. In March though I hope to grind a lot of hands. Anyways long day tomorrow, wish me luck! Hopefully I'm sitting next to a hottie the whole way there on Valentines day. Maybe use my mad skillz. Next time I blog I'll be an aussie. Maybe that will bring out my superuser accounts and I'll be crushing 200/400 in a month or so. Later all.

Best month so far

2008-01-31T23:43:00.000-08:00

Poker went very well this month, especially considering I took pretty much a full week off. Complete with all hands, bonuses, and rakeback I ended January up $13 746. This is my best month by $2.7k. I didn't play as many hands as I'd like though; I only managed to put in just over 14k.

I am not going to move up to 3/6 in February yet, as I will be moving to Australia and will have a lot going on. I hope to grind a lot before I move on the 13th. If I can make $10k I think it will be a successful month.

Coaching has gone well. I've had two sessions with hookem so far and I'm pretty impressed. I will continue to get them most likely once a week. With his help I will hopefully be able to move up to 5/10 in a few months.

That's all for now. Good luck to everyone.

Back home, grinding, new coach

2008-01-24T23:58:00.000-08:00

I'm home from Florida now. It was an awesome time but I'm glad to be back. Ive got lots to do to get ready for Australia and want to get in lots of poker. I ended up almost exactly $300 on the trip from live poker only. I think i ended up playing online as well, but it would be close.

I'm now a student of hookem148's, which I can say after my first lesson tonight, is awesome. He really knows his stuff, is a good teacher, personable, and not super expensive. I'm looking forward to being a long-term student of his as I move up the ranks.

I didn't run very well tonight as most of the pots I won were bluffs. There were a lot of interesting hands though so I'll post a few.

Hand 1: Strange set hand

Flop is nice, but I can't represent much by raising and I want my hand to seem like a small pair or a float so he double barrels. On the turn I don't think he has a super strong hand because I know he can double barrel and the timing didn't seem super strong. I think raising gets him off the hand a large % of the time and I want to continue to represent a weak made hand so i call. On the river he almost insta checked which hookem told me he was 100% sure villian was in chk call mode. We make a big bet and expect to get called by a mid overpair type hand. Surprisingly he shows up with a set, which we thought was a tiny % of his range. We lost value by not raising at some point in the hand, but based on our read of his range we thought it was the best line.

Hand 2: Standard flop stab

This hand is fairly standard, although I'm just posting to show the villain who shows up in a few of these hands. He insta min 3 bets a ton OOP with a huge range. I call with a good enough hand on the button. This player slowplays a ton as well. Flop is dry and could easily hit my range so I bet and take it down.

Hand 3: Strange 4 bet pot

Same villain here. Hookem suggested I 4 bet this hand for a couple of reasons. Villain insta 3 bets with most of his range here, so 44 does well, but mainly when we have the initiative. Most of the time we don't hit our set either so calling would make it awkward. Also, we hadn't 4 bet him yet. Notice the sizing of the 4 bet as well. It doesn't have to be big to do the job. We take an interesting flop. I think I have to make a c bet here as his range is so wide. He calls and I'm ready to shut down. Based on the timing of the call though and how big his range is hookem suggested I continue to represent an overpair and bet again. Even though villain is a fish I have 4 bet him pre, c bet 2/3 pot on the flop, and followed it up with a committing turn bet. He still folds a majority of his range. I'm a little freaked out to make the bet but I take it down which was nice.

Hand 4: I like floating, obv

Same villain in this hand. I prefer calling his 3 bet with this type of hand because it plays well post flop and is easy to make better decisions. We don't think he folds much on the flop and we think about our hand distributions. Aces probably check because they have showdown value. Mid pairs probably check because they don't get much value if bet and can't stand a raise. On the turn we read villain as taking a stab and not very strong. We think about what hands we would raise there. Draws and bluffs are a large % of those hands. Medium strength hands that have a piece of that flop would just call. We decide to represent that type of hand and call. River is actually a good card for us as it completes the flush and isn't an overcard. He checks and we bet looking for value from our 77, 8x, or 99.

Hand 5: JJ AIPF

We had just 3 bet villain the previous hand. Now we pick up JJ and he isolates on the button. We make what looks like a squeeze and he makes a small 4 bet. I thought AA right away, but hookem said the shove was a good play for a few reasons. 1. He doesn't expect us to have a hand twice in a row. 2. His isolation looks weak and he knows we can pick up on that and squeeze. 3. He 4 bets small which could be strong, but looks like he doesn't want to shove. 4. We have an underrepresented hand and have good equity against everything but QQ+. Result doesn't matter.

Hand 6: River value raise

I isolate the fishy limper with KQ. Flop is not great but I make a cbet anyways. With his stack size I don't think he folds the turn so I give up on the hand. The river is an interesting card as it gives me top pair and puts a possible flush on board. His bet of less than 1/2 pot was interesting as well. Hookem thought it looked weak and was a blocker of some sort. The question is whether or not to raise for his last $60 or not. It seemed like a pretty clear value raise for his last $60 when he could have worse hands that will call due to pot odds. He turned up with the flush which was kind of strange. If he had of shoved the river we probably would have folded as that is a much more common line from fish when they hit their hand out of position. I'm fine with how this hand went down.

Hand 7: Strange big draw deep

This hand is strange on all levels. We are all pretty much 200bb deep. Both are fish, and jazz is that fish in a few of the previous hands. Flop is great, so I bet obv. Doe makes a raise and I all of a sudden don't know what to do. If we had 100bb I would just shove most of the time. However we are very deep and a shove would be a mistake. Also we have a huge fish behind me to act. Folding is out of the question, and it helps me if jazz stays in the hand. I call, and unfortunately jazz folds. We have to think of Doe's range here. AQ and QQ are unlikely. KQ is probably pretty unlikely as well. We have to put most of his range on a set here. Turn is crap, and he makes a bet committing himself to a shove. I think we can put him squarely on 55 or 66 here. The way we played it looked kind of weak but both of us felt it was the best line to take.

Hand 8: I love to fold apparently

Calling is good preflop as I have position, a good connecting suited hand and the possibility of a multiway pot. Flop is good but not great. Raising doesn't have much value as better hands never fold and my hand is pretty vulnerable. This is basically a one call hand. Huggy shows he isn't going to fold on the turn so I fold pretty quickly.

I lost around $330 on the session but I'm very happy with how it went. I learned a bunch and finally got in a good session. If the rest of January goes well I'm going to move up to 3/6 in February for a shot. Hope it works out. Good luck everyone.

Less poker, more vacation

2008-01-17T23:03:00.001-08:00

I'm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida right now just chilling for a week. My friend and his family are up here for a month or so so I decided to take a week off my school break :). It's been good so far with pretty warm weather. Been to the casino a couple times and am up $94 from playing $1/$2 NL max $100 buy in. The donks are unbelievably bad. Like stupidly bad.

Been to the beach at night, not during the day yet though. Saw some $70 million yachts. Ate some good foods. Been to the hot tub every night with beer. Been a pretty good time so far. Played a session today because I was determined to pay for my trip. Went well with me winning around $695 in an hour and a half. So if I don't lose in the next couple sessions the trip will have been paid for. Nice eh.

I go to Australia in a few weeks which is pretty crazy. I'm excited and slightly nervous to be going. I've got a friend already there though which is nice.

That's all for today my friends. I'd post hands but it's really late and I'm tired. Good luck all. Btw my last 6k hands have been roughly breakeven.

Hot streak slowing down

2008-01-09T22:28:00.000-08:00

The last few sessions haven't followed the same routine as my first few did. That said I've managed to grind out a few more small wins without any significant losing sessions. I'm very happy overall with how I've played as I believe I'm extracting value well and saving bets when I'm behind.

Last night a friend RCSwanson sweated me for awhile in a fairly uneventful session. It was good though hearing another opinion. Today I was sweated by whitewash for a couple of hours in a session that went well. I started off by losing about a buyin with QQ vs AA. Got in the same setup situation awhile later as well. No worries though I came out ahead $1100 in the session and made some good reads. Here's some hands.

Hand 1: 3-bet pot OOP JJ

Villian seemed pretty solid but insta called my 3 bet. This hand is basically all about timing tells. His insta call preflop told me he had a playable but not great hand. I think sometimes he might show up with AA but I find it pretty unlikely. I made my c bet and he insta shoved on me. This looked bluffy right away. He could be 3rd leveling me to make it look like a bluff, but I think that is unlikely for three reasons. 1. He looked like a small winner but nobody that special, 2. For this to work he has to assume I think on multiple levels, and 3. Even if I will call light that board is so dry he's unlikely to get any action anyways. Add that to the fact that his timing throughout the hand looked weak and I made the call.

Hand 2: Set folding time

I think I'd like to make my flop raise bigger, but I don't think it matters really. I think he reraises or shoves over my raise with two pair and a combo draw most of the time. I don't think a set of J's or A's is in his range because of the preflop action. Even if he does call with 2 pair to my flop raise I think he just jams the turn. A weaker ace plays like this so far. On the turn I make a bet that pretty much tells him I'm not going anywhere. He calls again which I think puts most of his range as a draw. The heart hits the river and he shoves. I'm getting like 3-1 on my money but I have no idea what else he plays like that except hearts. I folded and felt pretty good about it.

Hand 3: 5 bet AA preflop

This hand is against the same villian as Hand 1, and not too long after I stacked him. Once he 4 bets me it gets interesting. We're both deep which leaves room for more interesting plays pre and post flop. I decide to 5 bet small for a couple reasons, 1. I know he's capable of making plays so putting more money in with AA can't be a big mistake, 2. Because we're so deep I have room to small 5 bet and fold to a shove. Anyways he folds to my 5 bet, but is this a big mistake with position and a lot behind? Honestly i don't 5 bet bluff like ever but he doesn't know that and could be tilting.

Hand 4: Deceptive set in multiway pot

This was an interesting hand where whitewash and I had differing opinions on flop play. Here's my logic, the board is super dry, nobody likely has a big hand or any hand at all, and even if someone does has a K, I doubt I get three streets of value. By checking I gain deception and might make an extra bet out of somebody. Here's another problem I have with betting. Sure, I may do it with most of my range on a dry flop like that, but a bet like that is designed for an entirely different purpose, which is to pick up the pot right there and then. I want to maximize fold equity and by betting out I think it achieves that end. Also, I know that I bet that flop with most of my range, and most of the time with a set as well, but my opponents don't know that. It's not my personal range that I should be concerned with, its my perceived range in my opponent's eyes. The turn is a really great card for me. It makes me a full house, puts a diamond draw on the board, and makes it less likely in my opponent's eyes that I have a set of 2's. When I raise the turn my perceived range is likely to be very polarized to bluffs or exactly a set of 6's. I almost never play AK or KK this way, which leaves a missed pair, diamond draw of some sort, or a set of 6's. Villian's turn call to my raise is fine I think but he really should have folded to my river bet. Good result though.

Hand 5: Top two against action

I didn't really know what to do in this hand. Villian is 18/12ish and kind of nitty. By cold calling OOP preflop I think I can rule out at least KK and JJ. QT is certainly in his cold calling range though. He raises very quick on the flop and it's a large raise. I'm confused and scared of QT or a set. I'm not yet ready to fold though. The turn comes and he shoves in about 5 seconds. I really don't know what to think about this hand although in the heat of the moment his action just looked super strong. I think it's an OK fold.

Hand 6: Weird big full

This hand is played against a donk. When he raises my flop bet I decide to donk him right back and min reraise him. Turn is standard. River I don't know if a shove was right. It's a large % of the pot for him to call and you'd think he would have jammed an 8 by now. I think he folded a top pair T type hand on the river. So what could I have done differently? I think instead of min reraising him on the flop, I could have raised to around $75 or $80 with the same result. If I had of done this I could have sized my turn bet larger so the river all in shove wouldn't have been such a big bet. I don't know if he stacks off if I do this, but I should have used some foresight in this hand.

That's all for today. I had that good session with whitewash then lost $1k in about 30 minutes later on. Set against a flush draw, top two against rivered flush, that type of thing. I'm happy with how I played though. GL all.

Running hot and stepping up my game

2008-01-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

January has gone pretty sweet so far. I'm running super hot but feel like I'm also playing awesome. I guess most people feel this way when they run well though eh? Anyways in like 3k hands I'm up ~$8k which is obviously above expectation. I've moved to Absolute for my main site and wow is it ever fishy. I think you can achieve a higher win rate there because their tables are 200bb max buy in. I only buy in for 100bb at the moment, but what tends to happen is I double up then play a 400bb pot against a fish instead of the usual 200bb pot. I haven't even found any solid regulars yet. All in time I guess.

Other than my results, I'm excited in the interest a post I made on cardrunners has gotten. I posted in the mid stakes NL forum looking for dedicated players to share sweat sessions, knowledge, advice, etc. So far I've gotten many responses which shows that people are in a similar situation I am in.

I am also expecting to get a coach in the next little while. Obviously the best case scenario would for Taylor to choose me as his protege, but I can't count on that. A past protege, Hookem148 is also looking for a couple students. The hourly rate works out to $100 which is a really great value. So I applied to him as well. If neither of these work out I think I've got another coach lined up which a significantly higher rate but looks like a good one.

I'm going to post some hands, maybe one or two for no purpose other than to brag, lol, but a couple with interesting lines I took.

Ok pokerhand.org is being super lame so I'm just going to post the raw HH's. Don't hurt your eyes.

I'd been raising quite a bit lately and basically running over the table. Villian in this hand is 16/10 over 131 hands. We're both 200bb deep and I decide to make the call because his range his skewed to high card hands which I'm more likely to stack if I hit, and because he is so weak I think he'll let go of missed overcards. Flop is great and I decide to bet to get value from mid-high pairs. I think missed overcards are less likely because this is a good flop to make a cbet on. By the river I'm a little worried about TT but I think it's an easy value push. This hand isn't super interesting but it sets up the next one which occured the very next hand.

STAGE #866502818: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $4 - 2008-01-05 15:33:01 (ET)
Table: LOUISIANA ST (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 6 - HAHAMUCK ($1061.40 in chips)
Seat 1 - CRUSH_A_LOT ($886.65 in chips)
Seat 2 - CASADEWHITEY ($800 in chips)
Seat 3 - XMIKTHEFISHX ($203.60 in chips)
Seat 4 - CLAUDEHAJ ($716.10 in chips)
Seat 5 - SAVAGE698 ($433.40 in chips)
CRUSH_A_LOT - Posts small blind $2
CASADEWHITEY - Posts big blind $4
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HAHAMUCK [8c 9c]
XMIKTHEFISHX - Folds
CLAUDEHAJ - Folds
SAVAGE698 - Folds
HAHAMUCK - Raises $14 to $14
CRUSH_A_LOT - Folds
CASADEWHITEY - Raises $47 to $51
HAHAMUCK - Calls $37
*** FLOP *** [8s 8d Qs]
CASADEWHITEY - Checks
HAHAMUCK - Bets $64
CASADEWHITEY - Calls $64
*** TURN *** [8s 8d Qs] [2c]
CASADEWHITEY - Checks
HAHAMUCK - Bets $140
CASADEWHITEY - Calls $140
*** RIVER *** [8s 8d Qs 2c] [10d]
CASADEWHITEY - Bets $225
HAHAMUCK - All-In(Raise) $806.40 to $806.40
CASADEWHITEY - Folds
HAHAMUCK - returned ($581.40) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HAHAMUCK - Does not show
HAHAMUCK Collects $958.50 from main pot

As I said this hand occurred right after I take the previous one down. By now I think my image is very loose and I won't get much respect. Crush a lot looks like a semi-decent regular so I think he could be picking up on my image and making a play. By the flop I want my hand to be represented as a mid pair that is looking for pot control. I think check calling flop is by far the best play. Turn is gin, but might be tough to get value from him if he himself has a mid pair or bluffing. I decide to stay with the hand I'm representing and check. By the river I think a check is the best. If he has nothing and I bet my EV is 0, and if he has AA we're getting it in anyways. By checking I give him one more chance to bluff at the pot. Good result.

STAGE #866504427: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $4 - 2008-01-05 15:34:51 (ET)
Table: LOUISIANA ST (Real Money) Seat #1 is the dealer
Seat 1 - CRUSH_A_LOT ($884.65 in chips)
Seat 2 - CASADEWHITEY ($320 in chips)
Seat 3 - XMIKTHEFISHX ($203.60 in chips)
Seat 4 - CLAUDEHAJ ($716.10 in chips)
Seat 5 - SAVAGE698 ($433.40 in chips)
Seat 6 - HAHAMUCK ($1539.90 in chips)
CASADEWHITEY - Posts small blind $2
XMIKTHEFISHX - Posts big blind $4
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HAHAMUCK [Kd Kh]
CLAUDEHAJ - Folds
SAVAGE698 - Raises $16 to $16
HAHAMUCK - Raises $54 to $54
CRUSH_A_LOT - Raises $160 to $160
CASADEWHITEY - Folds
XMIKTHEFISHX - Folds
SAVAGE698 - Folds
HAHAMUCK - Calls $106
*** FLOP *** [5s 5d 9c]
HAHAMUCK - Checks
CRUSH_A_LOT - Bets $250
HAHAMUCK - Calls $250
*** TURN *** [5s 5d 9c] [Kc]
HAHAMUCK - Checks
CRUSH_A_LOT - Checks
*** RIVER *** [5s 5d 9c Kc] [6h]
HAHAMUCK - Checks
CRUSH_A_LOT - All-In $474.65
HAHAMUCK - Calls $474.65
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CRUSH_A_LOT - Shows [Ah Qd] (One pair, fives)
HAHAMUCK - Shows [Kd Kh] (Full house, kings full of fives)
HAHAMUCK Collects $1787.80 from main pot

This hand follows a more passive line like the one above. I had stacked villian earlier with top set to his bottom set and he seemed to be steaming. He was raising a ton of hands but I don't think a 3 bet is good because I think he'll call with the majority of his range. Besides I have good set odds. Good flop, but unlikely to hit him; I just call. Not a very scary turn but because of his check I doubt he has a J or a straight draw, so I check and let him bluff at it on the river. River is standard until his shove. I had a big WTF moment. I was slightly scared of 77 but it seemed to be a fairly easy call. I really think his shove is terrible against my calling range.

STAGE #864728820: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $4 - 2008-01-03 17:46:31 (ET)
Table: KINDRED ST (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 2 - HAHAMUCK ($1322.90 in chips)
Seat 3 - 2007LIU ($522.35 in chips)
Seat 4 - DONKEYPRO ($144 in chips)
Seat 5 - STAINLESS9 ($395 in chips)
Seat 6 - MMMM9999111 ($833.50 in chips)
Seat 1 - IKESTOYS ($1096.10 in chips)
2007LIU - Posts small blind $2
DONKEYPRO - Posts big blind $4
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HAHAMUCK [6d 6c]
STAINLESS9 - Folds
MMMM9999111 - Folds
IKESTOYS - Raises $14 to $14
HAHAMUCK - Calls $14
2007LIU - Folds
DONKEYPRO - Folds
*** FLOP *** [3d 6s Jc]
IKESTOYS - Bets $25
HAHAMUCK - Calls $25
*** TURN *** [3d 6s Jc] [7d]
IKESTOYS - Checks
HAHAMUCK - Checks
*** RIVER *** [3d 6s Jc 7d] [Jh]
IKESTOYS - Bets $60
HAHAMUCK - Raises $205 to $205
IKESTOYS - All-In(Raise) $997.10 to $1057.10
HAHAMUCK - Calls $852.10
*** SHOW DOWN ***
IKESTOYS - Shows [Kd Jd] (Three of a kind, jacks)
HAHAMUCK - Shows [6d 6c] (Full house, sixes full of jacks)
HAHAMUCK Collects $2195.20 from main pot

I really like how I played this hand. Villian had been quiet in terms of 3 betting me but I had the feeling he was getting frustrated. Preflop is an easy call due to stack sizes, even though I am out of position. Missed flop, but I think in his eyes this is a flop that could easily hit my calling range. I thought his 3 betting range was skewed pretty tight, and I doubt even an overpair wants to be playing a 400bb pot when he could be crushed. The sizing of his continuation bet also looked weak. I represent a set or combo draw and he folds.

STAGE #866496034: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $4 - 2008-01-05 15:25:01 (ET)
Table: LOUISIANA ST (Real Money) Seat #1 is the dealer
Seat 1 - CRUSH_A_LOT ($1035.05 in chips)
Seat 2 - CASADEWHITEY ($780.60 in chips)
Seat 3 - XMIKTHEFISHX ($134.60 in chips)
Seat 4 - CLAUDEHAJ ($776.10 in chips)
Seat 5 - SAVAGE698 ($350.40 in chips)
Seat 6 - HAHAMUCK ($970.60 in chips)
CASADEWHITEY - Posts small blind $2
XMIKTHEFISHX - Posts big blind $4
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HAHAMUCK [7s 7d]
CLAUDEHAJ - Folds
SAVAGE698 - Folds
HAHAMUCK - Raises $14 to $14
CRUSH_A_LOT - Raises $48 to $48
CASADEWHITEY - Folds
XMIKTHEFISHX - Folds
HAHAMUCK - Calls $34
*** FLOP *** [5h 8h 9h]
HAHAMUCK - Checks
CRUSH_A_LOT - Bets $68
HAHAMUCK - Raises $215 to $215
CRUSH_A_LOT - Folds
HAHAMUCK - returned ($147) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HAHAMUCK - Does not show
HAHAMUCK Collects $234.50 from main pot

I wasn't too sure what to make of villian's flop lead. Looking back I'm thinking a call might have been better. I have position, it will be heads up, and I have a pretty strong hand. Anyways, I got the money in as a 60/40 so no problems I suppose. Although if I did call and bricked the turn he would probably shove and take it down. Does he play a set like this as well? I was told by a CR member that this player is good at 1/2 but tilts fast at 2/4. Maybe this would skew his range towards big draws and sets. If this is true I think a call might be a little better, but the way I played it turned out ok.

STAGE #865672192: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $4 - 2008-01-04 19:14:17 (ET)
Table: ELDERBERRY ST (Real Money) Seat #5 is the dealer
Seat 5 - HAHAMUCK ($365.65 in chips)
Seat 6 - POKERLEADER ($866.05 in chips)
Seat 1 - LASTO ($697.45 in chips)
Seat 2 - SAMMY17 ($447.80 in chips)
Seat 3 - SNOWMAN07 ($224.70 in chips)
Seat 4 - NICKELNUTS ($400 in chips)
POKERLEADER - Posts small blind $2
LASTO - Posts big blind $4
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HAHAMUCK [9s Qs]
SAMMY17 - Folds
SNOWMAN07 - Calls $4
NICKELNUTS - Folds
HAHAMUCK - Raises $18 to $18
POKERLEADER - Calls $16
LASTO - Calls $14
SNOWMAN07 - Calls $14
*** FLOP *** [Qh 5s 8s]
POKERLEADER - Bets $65
LASTO - Folds
SNOWMAN07 - Folds
HAHAMUCK - Raises $200 to $200
POKERLEADER - Raises $659 to $724
HAHAMUCK - All-In $147.65
POKERLEADER - returned ($376.35) : not called
*** TURN *** [Qh 5s 8s] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [Qh 5s 8s 2s] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HAHAMUCK - Shows [9s Qs] (Flush, queen high)
POKERLEADER - Shows [7s As] (Flush, ace high)
POKERLEADER Collects $763.80 from main pot

That's all for now as I gotta get back to the grind. GL everyone.

And 2008 is here

2008-01-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everybody, I hope you all had a great holiday. This past week has been pretty sweet because I had a friend visiting from Winnipeg. We drank quite a bit, went to the mountain a couple times and partied pretty hard. Goooood times.

New years seems to be a time people make outrageous goals and never complete them. I'm going to try and make attainable goals. For poker, I hope to make at least $200k in poker this year. This goal is attainable because I will be playing more mainly because I'll be in Australia living by myself for the first times. I really want to move up and make some serious money, so 2008 is going to be the year.

I'd also like to improve my social skills this year. In business, networking and social skills are more important than everything else including school in my opinion. I'd like to get more girlfriends as well. I might try out the Style Life challenge and see how that works.

I'm going to have an awesome time in Australia and Vegas this year. This is my third resolution - to have fun! Now is the time before I finish school and the 'grind' starts.

Anyways good luck to everyone in the New Year; I hope its a good one.

Almost done school - motivation/optimism post

2007-12-15T16:21:00.000-08:00

School is finally drawing to a close. I still have 5 exams left, lol, but only a week to go. I have one exam on tuesday, 2 wednesday, 1 thursday and 1 friday. I also had one already last thursday which went pretty well. Needless to say i'm in study mode and haven't had very much time for poker.

Mind you, my study mode is probably someone else's relaxing mode. Ah well, i know i'll do fine on these exams so why stress out, right? The poker i have played has gone well. I've played some on absolute, but the software makes me go crazy. It lags up my system so bad which obviously sucks. The competition is super soft which makes it even worse that the software blows as much as it does. I'm down a couple hundred there i think.

Overall on the month though i'm up around $1900 in probably 700 hands. lol. I played a good late night session on cake a few nights ago and found some fish. I played 3/6 on one table and left up 3 or 400. I think if January starts off well i'll take a 5 buyin shot at 3/6. The competition is largely the same as 2/4 although i expect i'll run into a few more 5/10+ regs.

It seems to me people tend to give these guys too much credit. Yea if they're a reg at 5/10 and a pretty big winner let's say their winrate is 3-4ptbb/100. Because i'm a winner around the same range at 2/4, the edge they have over me in a 6 handed table is pretty small. I always tend to psyche myself out when i see a good 2/4-5/10 reg at my table, but i dont think i should worry too much about it. Having one good reg with a couple mediocre players and a couple fish will still be very profitable. It's also a learning opportunity to see how they play and break down how they approach the game.

I've got around 50 buyins for 3/6 online as well, so i figure i'm pretty well rolled for it. I want to prove myself at 2/4 some more though before moving up. I also don't think i can handle the swings well enough at 3/6. Let's just say i've had some bad experiences there. I recall a tilt session of -$3600 back on party some months ago. I think a stop loss of 3 buyins would be a good tilt control device. I can always come back 30 min or an hour later when i'm feeling better.
Anyways when i'm in Australia from February-June I hope to grind out a lot of hands and move up. I want to get a schedule going or something, like x number of hands per week, x number of hours reviewing/day, and perhaps a coaching session once a week to keep me on track. Even if i do 4 one hour lessons a month it's only $800. If this allows me to win $10, 20k+/month it's obviously well worth it.

By the time i'm in Vegas next summer i'd like to be a winner at 5/10 or 10/20. I don't think this is unrealistic at all if i stay motivated and put in the hours, both at and away from the tables. By then the money will be really nice and i'll feel like i've accomplished something at the game. I've done pretty well so far, but i know if i put in the hours i can go a long way further. Easy. Anyways thats it for today, wish me luck in the exams. GL grinding.

quick results and optimism post

2007-12-02T18:23:00.000-08:00

Hey all this is going to be a short entry. November ended well with me earning just over $11k over 12kish hands. So basically i ran well and played well. I don't expect to be playing much in December as i have two more 10pg essays to do and 6 exams to study for. After that i have a buddy coming for a week. I expect we'll be at the mountain/bars most of the time, but we will make time to pool our money and buy a condo! Yea i'm pretty excited to put some money down in an investment like this. If i can get in 10k hands this month that would be pretty good. Anything $4k and up would be great. As for January id like to play alot and make it my best month. There's a chance i might head to Florida with a buddy for a week or two to relax and play some live pokers. Either way if I can have another $10k+ month in January that would be great. Then i'm off to Melbourne on Feb 13th for about 5 months. Although i guess before i can go to Australia i have to pass these exams :S. Good luck all.

Good month pokerwise

2007-11-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

Hey all. Sorry it's been so long to update this thing. It's been a busy month with midterms, poker, kick boxing, partying, and recently many trips to the hospital which has killed my poker playing mood. I don't want to go onto it here but my sister is really sick so we're all really pulling for her to get better.

Anyways I've played a fair amount only 2-4 tabling on cake for the most part. I've played 10 833 hands at cake - most of it being 2/4. Having a laptop is great as I can play at school during the boring classes. I'm probably up $800ish from playing in classes so it's definitely worth it.

This month I had two coaching sessions totaling three hours. I haven't gotten as much coaching as I'd like, but I'm doing really well at the tables and see no need to change anything. Even from those three hours I've improved my game by a huge amount. It obviously doesn't hurt that I'm running well this month, but my play has also been really good.

So far I'm up approximately $9317 on cake alone. I think I'm down $150 or so at party. Up $200ish at PLO on full tilt. So yea I'm running just above 10ptbb/100 this month. Clearly not sustainable, but it's about time I had a good run like this. Without my lessons I bet I'd have been ~5 buy ins lower.

So yea...theres been a bunch of hands where I've gotten a ton of value and would like to show them here, but cake hand history's are hard to follow and I can't import them into poker tracker. I'm hoping to make over $10k this month, as it seems like a milestone number. In all actuality if I continue to run good and play I don't think $15k is unreasonable.

That's all for today, GL everyone.

October results and November optimism

2007-11-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

October went well considering how many hands i played. I had a ton of midterms and crap to do so i think overall i might have gotten in 8k hands or so, which is quite sad. For cash games i put my total around $1800. I mainly played 1/2 but moved back up to 2/4 to play regularly near the end of the month.

So far I've had two coaching sessions, one one hour and one two hours. Both times he sweated me. Next time i think ill choose some tough games and sweat him as he plays. Should be an interesting perspective. I've written notes on what I've learned so far and i think I've plugged a lot of leaks.

I added up my bankroll a couple weeks ago and was surprised how high it was. It's certainly down from my high point, but still around $4k higher than I thought it was. Good surprise that's for sure.

So now I'm a 2/4 regular again. I will not play 3/6 though. I've lost so much money at 3/6 it's quite ridiculous. I'm up at 10/20 and down at 3/6 lifetime. Maybe i should just move up where they respect my raises.

Anyways I'm mainly playing 2/4 on Cake which is going well so far. I hope to get in 15k+ hands this month and make some good moneys. I need to build up the bankroll for the big expenses coming in a few months.

Got a new laptop which is nice. I can play 4 tables without overlap and probably 6 with a little overlap. I think it's best I'll only be able to play 4 tables. Should be able to concentrate more which will improve my bottom line.

I played about an hour session today mostly 3 tabling on Cake. I'm pretty happy with how I played. A couple hands i played in an interesting way which I'm sure maximized my expectation. It seems like before I always went bet bet bet with my good hands without thinking too much about it. There are two benefits to how I am playing now. One, i maximize my expectation and minimize my losses in some situations where I previously would have lost more. And two, playing as I do now randomizes my ranges without me consciously thinking about it.

That's all for today though. I plan on grinding as much as I can and hope to have a great month in November. GL to all.

Ahh life

2007-10-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sup everyone. I haven't posted as much as I'd like to, but w/e. This month has been crazy busy, and unfortunately not with poker. School has been ridonkulous with midterms and projects and assignments and debates and the whole she-bang. I am pleased to announce that midterms are almost behind me. I have two next week, then i'm free, FREE I SAY.

At least free until the next batch starts up. Sigh. I have a pretty busy schedule this semester. Kickboxing Monday Friday, and will probably start up Wednesdays as well. Dodgeball on tuesdays. Let's not forget lovely school with 6 courses every day as well.

This may sound pessimistic, but I'm not trying to make it that way. Being busy is alot better than being bored and lonely. I've also managed to get drunk most every weekend which is nice.

Poker this month has been very scarce. Probably 4k hands tops so far. I think i'm up $1500 or so which is nice. Last night i played for a couple hours on stars and full tilt at 1/2 and finished up $1400. I had the good fortune of running well and sitting next to a 62/1 uber fish with 7 buyins in front of him. I stacked him twice then headed to bed. I think i regret that decision though, as he was complete dead money. Playing with 400bb in front of you is kind of nervewracking though, and i dont think i was playing my best that late.

Tonight i downloaded eurobet to try out the games. They are very fishy but the software kinda blows. I lost two stacks totalling $600 with AA on that site tonight. One dude hit an OESD on the turn after calling my 3 bet pre and flop bet. The other guy hit a set of 10's after i 4 bet preflop. W/e, he clearly wasn't getting set odds.

I got my bank statements and was kind of shocked that i spent over $4k last month. Granted, 75% of that was in tuition and books, but it still kind of hurts. I knew i was getting short on cash but it was still kind of a slap in the face.

I am now getting coached. I had my first lesson on wednesday and it went quite well. The price is high, but I am paying for future expectation. At least that's how i'm rationalizing it at the moment. I am confident that with his coaching i will be able to beat 2/4 and up soon. Honestly if the swings didn't bother me and i could play my best at all times i'm 80% sure i could be a long term winner at 2/4 right now. Albeit a marginal one at that.

But being a marginal winner is not a good thing to be. If i can beat 2/4 for 1.5ptbb/100, so what? My variance will likely be huge. I'm excited to get back up into the bigger games though. 1/2 seems small after my long trek at 2/4.

I miss being in the game. Absolutely, school is my priority right now and i recognize that. I don't pay $5kish a year to do nothing. This year it'll be more like $20k. I do need poker to cover my expenses. But i also miss it for the fun of playing. I remember last year around this time i was grinding around .25/.50, maybe some .5/1. Winning was easy back then.

I'm not gonna go off like so many people do about the glory days of party poker. The fact is low stakes are just as beatable now as they were. I think the biggest impact was on the mid stakes. I don't have personal experience to prove that but it seems to be the general consensus. Anyways, back to my point. Winning easily and beating other people gives you a feeling of superiority, whether you acknowledge it or not.

I was in my ethics class a week ago, which btw is pretty interesting. Philosophy and learning about how others think is cool. Probably the rationalization and logic of poker is part of the reason why i find it intriguing. Anyways we were talking about how people value work. I had some thoughts and wrote down some stuff, which is pretty rare. Lol, writing notes in class? Who does that?

Anyways my general conclusion is that we value what we work for. If we work very hard towards something and achieve it we value the reward much more than if we got it easily. Back to poker, this time last year i was a pretty big winner and moved up in levels almost every month. Success came easy.

What about now? I've struggled this whole year to make some good money. Every month i look back at my poker knowledge and laugh at my ignorance, and how much I've improved. And every month i learn more and it feels great. But still the results aren't there. It makes sense that in the bad times you should review your game more than in the good times. If things are working, don't change anything.

So, let's review. I have a good preflop game. I have a marginal postflop game. I have a good enough bankroll. I have a good mindset about the game. I am analytical, logical, and pretty smart. I don't tilt, at least not the monkey tilt lots of degenerates have.

So what is against me? I don't know equity situations good enough. I used to call down too much - i think i have fixed that. I don't know how to respond in lots of common situations. I have a narrow view of the game - a standard cardrunners type game without any original ideas of my own. In short, i am a standard, exploitable, weak - aggressive (if there is such a type) player that is good enough to beat the rake, the donks, and the even weaker regs.

This is plenty good enough up to 1/2, but 2/4 and up it is a different story. Anyways, back to the point. We value that which we work hard for. Having these past downswings I've had and these problems i am having now has brought me back to reality. Honestly, I'm grateful that i didn't continue to run hot until 5/10 and start my downswing there.

So i know that i have to put in the hours both at and away from the tables to finally make the move up. I am hoping this November will be a great month in that regard. I'm thinking about making a small prop bet with whitewash about who plays the most hands in the month. With six courses, kick boxing, dodge ball, and partying though I'm not sure if i should make it. Also i am experimenting with smaller sites that don't support poker tracker. Either way it'll only be around $200, so it's not a huge deal.

I am going to make some preliminary goals for the month of November. They need to be optimistic, tough to achieve, but also realistic. Let's try a few.

1.) At least 4 lessons with my coach
2.) 2 hours of poker on: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays
3.) 4-6 tables max
4.) Try to get in some sweat sessions/review sessions
5.) I don't know how realistic this one is, but read The Math of Poker this month

Bah just going over this makes me realize that it will be tough to make 15k hands in November. That's pretty sad. I guess I'll have to leave my $10k goal for December. Maybe even January, as I'll have 6 exams in December.

The point is I've had some time away from the game and I want to get back into it. It's unfortunate that I won't be able to put in more time, but I think I've got my priorities straight. I also want to spend some time in the coming month to get a business plan together for me and my friend. We plan on starting a business and getting into the condo market. Should be a good time.

Good luck at the tables all, and if you have advice for me or want to do a sweat session, I'd be more than willing. Comments as always are welcome.

Interesting month

2007-09-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry i haven't updated in so long. I've been pretty busy with school, as I'm taking one class more than a regular full schedule. I also started kick boxing and joined a dodge ball team so i haven't had much time for poker. I'm also coming off my 10 BI downswing last month, so the motivation isn't really there.

That said, right now i do have motivation to get back in the grind. After paying for tuition, books, mountain pass, and various other bills, I've nearly busted my regular bank accounts. I've got money tied up in the market and my online roll, but it sure feels weird to not have much money in my accounts.

I've still got around $15k online, so i'm obviously nowhere near busto. It's just tough to get money out with stupid moneybookers. Maybe i'll use cheques from now on.

Anyways, after 11 638 hands at 200nl 6 max, 400nl 6 max, 200nl HU, 100nl HU, and a random 10 000nl HU match against whitewash :P, i ended down $278.73. WTF. Yesterday i won a seat into the WCOOP main event though, so i got $2225 for that seat. So all in all i ended September up $2kish. I guess one word is frustration.

After looking at my PokerEV graph for the month, i realized i suck at poker. lol. I ran slightly above expectation and still lost money. I know my postflop game for hands that i didn't show down is not very good. I'm losing a lot of money in pots that aren't shown down. Maybe i'm weak passive postflop? Maybe i'm over aggro?

Even though i know this about my game, i'm still pretty confident in my abilities. Yea i could write this info off saying i played a lot of HU and was just learning, and 11k hands is really nothing, but the fact remains that i have some leaks in my game. I know i can beat at least 200nl long term for a good clip.

I think i need a coach. I've checked out some coaches on 3bet.net. The problem is the cost. But w/e, if they can help me beat at least 200nl for a good clip it will be worth it. Yesterday i sweated whitewash for 4 hours talking on Skype. He was 2-4 tabling 2/4 while i was playing my donkament. Later on cntgetmedown joined in the convo. Just talking through the hands and listening to their logic helped me out.

Whitewash suggested that i have fancy play syndrome. Thinking it over, i absolutely have made plays that are questionable. But if i think about common postflop situations, i really don't make bluff raises too often or anything really out of line. So does this say I'm too passive postflop? Both whitewash and i noticed when we were talking that i was suggesting a more passive line a lot of the time. It seems like I've deviated from the GP school of betting, raising, raising some more.

I got my offer of acceptance from the Australian school i'm going to in february today. I expect the exchange will take $15kish out of my pocket. I also am planning on putting $10k into a condo for an investment pretty soon. It's funny that I'm spending money i don't even really have. I suppose i have the positive expectation of money but, unfortunately, you can't spend that :P.

So the question that it comes down to, is should i pay $200-$300 (I'm guessing) per hour to pay for a coach? I'm not too "proud" to admit that i need help with my game. I don't have a ton of time to grind though. Will it be worth it? If it's like $150/hour or less maybe i will.

But then again maybe i'll just tour the live circuit and play super satellites for a living. Whitewash will join me and we'll take the poker world by storm. That's all for today. I'll try to update more in October and play more hands. Here's to a positive cash game month coming up!

Lots of HU play today

2007-09-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

I played a bunch of hands today, all at 1/2 HU on full tilt. I can't expect huge results because i am still learning the game. Hopefully after a month of solid HU i will have a good grasp of it. Here's today's graph.

I'm only fairly happy with my play throughout the day. I thought i played pretty solid. There were a few tough situations though. Let's review some hands.

Hand 1: Don't know what to do

Villian raised on the button every hand but didn't call many 3 bets. However i have seen him show up in rr pots with some trashy hands. On the turn i am not sure what to do. I see this guy as a donk and want to stack him. We are fairly deep. Once i make the bet on the turn i commit myself to his AI, i think. I'm getting $386-$184 or ~2-1. I need to be good 33% of the time to make the call break even.

Board: 9d As 2s Qs
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 57.727% 52.73% 05.00% 928 88.00 { AhQh }
Hand 1: 42.273% 37.27% 05.00% 656 88.00 { AA, QQ, 99, 22, AJs+, A9s, KsQs, KsJs, KsTs, Ks9s, Ks8s, Ks7s, Ks6s, AJo+, A9o }

Looks like my call was fine. I guess it was a cooler.

Hand 2: Top 2 against insta AI

I'd recently won a big pot off this guy and he seemed like he was tilting a bit. I'm getting $303-$237 or 1.27-1. I need to be good ~44% of the time. Let's check it out.

Board: 8s Tc 9c
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 45.636% 42.40% 03.24% 50368 3848.00 { Td9d }
Hand 1: 54.364% 51.12% 03.24% 60736 3848.00 { 77+, AcKc, AcQc, AcJc, KcQc, KcJc, QJs, J7s, T7s+, 97s+, 76s, QJo, J7o, T7o+, 97o+, 76o }

Interesting. According to the range i put him on my call was slightly EV+. However in real time i think i need to fold this. That is a pretty wide range i put him on. If i misjudged that he was tilting his range is probably much tighter. It's tough in HU play to fold a big hand but i think my 2 pair needed to go into the muck here.

Hand 3: Weird AI preflop

Opp isn't very strong as evidenced by his limp on the button. I had been raising to $10 nearly everytime he did that and most of the time he folded. He had never reraised me. I was surprised when he min 3 bet me but thought QQ was still far ahead of his range. Once he pushes i need to be good ~57% of the time. I thought he could be pushing lighter because he was frustrated with me.

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 52.371% 50.99% 01.38% 35799808 966965.00 { QcQd }
Hand 1: 47.629% 46.25% 01.38% 32470726 966965.00 { TT+, AKs, AKo }

Once again, very interesting. If i add 99, AQo, AQs to his range my call swings into EV+. In retrospect i think i should have made a smaller 4 bet so i could have folded to his push, or just call his min 3 bet. Because it was the first time he did it i think a call is the best play.

Hand 4: Gift

I don't really know what opp was thinking here. I fire 2 barrels in a rr pot on a dry board. I'm always happy to get it in when opp is drawing to only 4 outs.

Hand 5: Good turn check

When villian insta min raises the flop i put him on a medium strength made hand or a draw. The flush only comes in on the turn 4-1 against, so by calling i don't blow him off the hand and give him another chance to bluff at it. Great turn. I check and hope he fires again. When he checks behind his hand distribution is totally skewed towards a flush draw. The river is perfect and i shove and get called by his flush. Awesome.

Hand 6: Cooler in my favour

This is one of those hands where i think both of us played it fine. Opp has a decision for all his chips on the flop when he decides to raise. I think i prefer a call by him. Well actually, i fold a lot of hands to his raise on the flop. Either way i think a call or raise by him is perfectly reasonable.

Hand 7: Lol min raise

Villain is a pretty big fish. I'd been waiting a long time for a hand like this to come along. The only interesting street is the turn, where i decide to min raise. I don't want to blow him off a weak ace or just a queen, and yet if i just call it might be tough to get it in on the river. I make the min raise to give him great odds to call with his weakish hand and so we can get it in on the river without the action having to go bet, raise, or overbet. It worked out well.

There were a few more big hands but they were relatively straightforward. So far i'm really enjoying playing HU even though my results haven't been great. I'm not worried though. GL all.

More HU today

2007-08-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty swingy. I played 1143 hands and ended down $529.95. Two and a half buyins, no biggie. Here's today's graph.

I felt like i ran bad for most of the day but haven't yet reviewed my hands. I guess we'll find out, though as here's today's biggest winners/losers.

Hand 1: Preflop battle

Opp seems like a good regular. I see him playing a couple other HU tables at 1/2 and 2/4. He is quite aggro and seems looser than normal in reraised pots. I could have left and looked for an easier game but i felt like i had an edge, although small, and really want to learn HU better. Anyways, we had been 3 betting each other quite a bit lately. Also i had 4 betted him at least once and he shoved and i folded. Notice also that we are playing 150bb deep. I hesitate on 4 betting because im not quite sure what to do if he shoves.

He obv shoves and i'm in a tight spot. I think he could be doing it with air because the stacks are bigger. Anyways i have to call $237 to win ~$360 so i need to be good ~66% of the time to make the call profitable. Let's check out a standard range.

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 35.599% 26.46% 09.14% 23106181 7981446.50 { AcQh }
Hand 1: 64.401% 55.26% 09.14% 48258430 7981446.50 { 99+, AQs+, AQo+ }

This is quite interesting as i thought i was in better shape. Very very interesting. He needs to be shoving 9.8% of hands for the equity to swing slightly in my favor. Even if he shoves 30% of his hands i still can't call profitably with AQo. Lol this is awesome; i actually learned something. I thought my call was marginal, maybe break even, at the time. Now i know i made a losing play. Good to know.

Hand 2: Another marginal spot

Same villain here. Preflop and flop are standard. It's his turn raise that interests me. On the turn i'm getting $125-$53 or 2.36-1. If i assume my club outs are clean, they will come in at ~4.1-1. Clearly this is a losing play. However, there's $135 of his stack i can still win on the river. My implied odds are $260-$53 or 4.9-1. Now it is a winning play. However we can't assume he will always stack off on the river if i hit. We also can't assume that right now he is beating me. Him being such an aggro opp, he can show up here with J10, KQ, clubs, 108. Is this likely? Probably not. I have bet twice and now he raises me. I think this call is marginal, but a marginal winner in this case.

Hand 3: Thank you

Villian here seems like an ok reg, but i can't be sure. Probably a slight winner but who knows. This game had been pretty aggro so far. I think he was getting the best of me. I think my play was fine on the flop. My gut told me he didn't have an overpair. I certainly didn't expect him to call with 66 though. This stack was gift.

Hand 4: Didn't know what to do

Villian here is not very good. Don't remember much else about him. Obviously looking at the stack sizes he had been owning me. Flop is great. Turn is bad, but not the worse. I doubt he had AK on the flop. 98 is a definite possibility though. I think KQ plays the same way as well. This hand was really tough. I need to call $145 to win $272 so my equity is 53%. I wonder if i screwed up this hand as well. Pokerstove time.

Board: Jh 5d Th Qd
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 34.632% 34.63% 00.00% 640 0.00 { JsTd }
Hand 1: 65.368% 65.37% 00.00% 1208 0.00 { KJs+, QJs, 98s, KJo+, QJo, 98o }

Bah. Another screw up. I kinda knew at the time that my chances weren't good. Ah well. This is why i do this blog. Next hand.

Hand 5: Cooler

Villian spews too much postflop. I bet the turn because a large part of his range is a drawy/medium strength type hand and i don't want to give him a free card. Also i don't think he will bet if i check to him. He c/r all in, i decide my hand is good, and the hand is over. That's what i try to tell myself so the results dont make me tilt. No need to analyze; i know i got the money in ahead.

Hand 6: LOL COOLER

No way i ever fold this. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach when he raises AI on the riv, but nothing else i can do. Nice gutterball.

Hand 7: Big draw

I don't think i have any other option after i commit to making the raise to $80 on the flop. Especially against this aggro villian. I think his flop min raise is irrelevant because i think it was a misclick. Who knows though. Against all overpair hands i'm 48% to win. Easy AI with the dead money in the pot. Add that to all the other hands he could have an i think i'm clearly a fav.

Hand 8: Same situation, different result

This time our roles were switched. Funny though, i don't win this one either. Lol this time with the overpair i also have equity of 48%. WTF. Can't break 50% i guess. W/e, i think this hand played itself.

That's enough for today. Some surprising results after analyzing these hands. Today's lesson, when you get that gut feeling that you're beat, follow it! The odds are always important but i have to objectively put them on a range, know how my hand performs against that range, and compare it to the pot odds. Lol poker isn't the easiest game ever. GL.

No hands today, just thoughts

2007-08-27T23:31:00.001-07:00

Hello again. Sorry i haven't blogged in awhile. I seem to like making promises and not following up on them. It's like every day i have an epiphany on how to play poker better so i do it for a week or two, run bad, then stop. I am trying to get better at this though. The last 10k hands have been pretty swingy and uneventful. I think i'm down $80ish over those 10k hands, so w/e.

I've decided to learn how to play heads up. I came to this decision for a variety of reasons; mainly because i've come to the realization that i'm not a very good poker player. Variance, absolutely, is a part of my reasoning as it's difficult to be an optimist when nothing is going right. But i can't deny the facts. I've had a very marginal winrate for a significant number of hands. Even as i type this i know that it is perfectly reasonable to run bad for that number of hands. I also know that i have improved as a player 100 fold in the past few months.

So where does that leave me? I've learned EV, hand ranges, variance, and i am still not crushing midstakes. I have the emotional control to be able to do this. I've been told that i sound very calm on my videos. It's true - the swings don't really get to me like they used to. I've matured as a player.

The main reason i am learning heads up is to improve all facets of my game. I've heard time and time again how playing heads up helps your reads, and just the psychology of poker. Also your edge is higher in a heads up match, obviously, because you can totally isolate the fish. Variance, however, is also quite large. But so what. I've had 20 buy in downswings in 6 max. I can handle this shit.

I guess i'm trying to model myself and my play after a guy like Taylor. He consistently crushes, doesn't tilt, doesn't have huge variance, and seems to have a balanced life outside of poker. If there's one thing i've learned during this summer of poker ups and downs, it is that i could never do this for a living. I much prefer to do this as a side income. Or even for all of my income while i go to school. Live and learn though eh? I'm sure glad i learned this lesson before i tried something stupid - like finishing school and playing poker full time.

That said i don't think i will ever completely turn away from poker. I've put so much into it, and plan to put in even more hours playing and studying the game. It's time for me to be rewarded. And sure, i'm doing well. I've got plenty of money, have no debt, and have a decent social circle. I'm not, however, making $30k+/month, playing mid-high stakes, or just feeling supremely confident about my game. This will come. Confidence is everything.

I ordered 'The Mathematics of Poker' with some FPP's from stars a week or so ago. It arrived today. The thing is basically a textbook, but i will read this mofo front to back. Math has never been a strong point for me. Sure, i can do algebra, fractions, probability, etc, etc, quite easily. I can't do G-bucks or even EV all that well without some help. I need the understanding of poker math that guys like CTS and Jman have. The book looks promising from what i've seen so far. I'm particularly interested in game theory, as i've touched on it in school but never really got into it.

Anyways, this is kind of like a check up for my poker game. Is it in alcoholics anonymous (lol if i put AA you poker nerds woulda though of pocket aces) where the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem? Well i've taken an honest look at my game, which is more than many great and terrible players alike can say. The path to riches is clear. Poker buddy Steve said to me tonight that in the fall we are both going to have $10k months. Are we? It's not even a question anymore. We're both committed to improving our games. Results will come.

There's my bit of philosophy for the month. Happy grinding everyone.

Downswing last few days

2007-08-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

From sunday on poker hasn't been good to me. I'm currently in a 8 buy in downswing, which really sucks. I know it's still pretty early in the month but this hit just takes away all your confidence. I was running bad since the month started then got hit with this. W/e, i'll just keep doing what i'm doing - playing and reviewing my play. Here's my graph since monday.

Here's some hands.

Hand 1: Resqueeze

I'd been raising quite a bit lately so i'm sure i had a fairly loose image. Yamulda had squeezed once before against me in the exact same situation but i folded. Yamulda is a pretty big fish. When he squeezed and i had AKs i felt way ahead of his range. I 4 bet quite large to around $375, committing myself to the pot. Surprisingly he calls. Good flop, and i think there is only one way to play this hand. If i'm bluffing with my 4 bet i'd be glad to shove this flop because it is so scary to a mid pair. Easy shove with AK.

Hand 2: Flop shove

Opp is a fairly light reraiser; he seems to do it with all pairs as well as some other random hands. I called knowing i would probably get a cbet out of him, and that he probably wouldn't call a 4 bet. Bad flop knowing he 3 bets all pairs but i think a shove is decent. I probably also shove with AA, KK, AdKx, AdKd, 88. Mind you that is a pretty tight range and he's not in very good shape against any of those holdings. Perhaps i should loosen up my 3 bet calling range? Obviously sometimes i'd have to make plays at a random flop for balance. The question is which flops to do it with? And against which opponents?

Hand 3: Nuts in limped pot

I tag along preflop with a deceptive hand and great pot odds. Awesome flop. I think i took a pretty standard line with my hand and against that many opponents. Colinclarke had just busted a bare flush draw against huge bets on the turn, so i know he is a big fishy. Looks like he had another weak flush draw. Let's do a g-bucks calc with my range against his hand and see how well i did.

Board: 5c 7s 6c
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 64.213% 63.09% 01.12% 33103 589.50 { 77-55, 98s, 84s, 43s, 98o, 84o, 43o }
Hand 1: 35.787% 34.66% 01.12% 18188 589.50 { Tc3c }

I am 64% with my range on the flop against his hand. My line made me $725 * (.64213) - $305 = $160.54 G-bucks. Against some opponents i'd have to take this same line with hands like AcTc+, 88, 76, 75, 65, etc, to make it a tougher decision for them. Then again, i don't need to randomize my range against opp's who will felt any flush draw at any time.

Hand 4: Cooler

This hand is against same opp as above. I finally get him on the ropes and he shows up with top set. So frustrating.

Hand 5: Another limped pot

Curlysam is quite a big fish and i am glad to be sitting to his left. Most of the time i raise K8 when a player limps my BB but i was mixing it up at the time. Also, he probably calls my raise with anything so i'm not at a huge advantage having only position. Anyways, i decide i will felt this flop every time because he can show up with such a huge range. I was surprised to see his hand. I took TT and KK out of his range because he probably raises those preflop. However, he didn't raise AKs so i guess i was wrong about that. Let's run my hand against his hand, my hand against his range, and my range against his hand.

Kd8s against AhKh on the board of 8hKsTh is 46%. I was slightly behind when all the money got in, but i certainly don't change my play. With all the dead money in the pot after the 2nd or 3rd raise i am happy to get it in.

Now what range does he make the same play with? Let's figure it out.

AKs, AKo, KK, TT, 88, J9s, J9o, T8s, T8o, KTs, KTo, QJs, QJo, AA, 97s, 97o

My hand against that range is 61.6%. I obviously got the money in good against his range of possible holdings. Now let's see how bad of a mistake he made against my range of hands.

Because it is a limped pot, i will take sets out of my range although i suppose i sometimes have them due to mixing it up.

KTs, K8s, QhJh, Jh9h, T8s, KTo, K8o, T8o is a decent range in this unraised pot. Against AKh, i am 47.7% to win the hand. This is a very interesting result. Even though i only show up with 2 pair or a big draw here most of the time, we are still about even money to win the hand. If, however, i add KK, TT, and 88 to my range, the equity swings my way slightly. The lesson? I sometimes have too narrow of a range due to the way i play a hand. I need to take a strange line sometimes with a big pair pre, or a set on the flop, etc, to balance my range. Cool hand.

Hand 6: Bad play (tilt)

I don't really like my play preflop, flop, and on the turn. lol. Opp had just sat down at the table, is a decent TAggish player, and i am assuming has no reads yet. Even so, he 3 bets me on his first or second hand after sitting down. My first thought is that he is strong for the reasons just mentioned. I should have 4 bet immediately. Ok, a call isn't horrible either as he probably has 2 outs and will felt most flops with a big pair. Terrible flop. I'm on the fence with my flop bet. His line is very strange as i'm pretty sure he would bet out a set as well as AK most of the time. Either way, i guess my flop bet isn't horrible. On the turn i should have an easy fold. His line screams a big hand and i guess i was tilting enough to put it in. Bad play by me.

Hand 7: Very thin river call

Fotspor is a huge fish and i have a note on him that he calls down for draws and will sometimes bluff the river when he misses. On the turn i think to myself that i will value bet a A every time and a Q probably half the time, depending on his action. He almost insta shoves. Now, his action follows with the note i have on him. But we have to look at the range of hands he would do this with. Actually just thinking over it, his range is so wide i can't even begin to calculate it. It's like trying to get into the head of someone with no logic. Let's just use our intuition then. He does this line with KQ, a set, a straight, and a missed draw. Even if we make it so he has these hands an equal % of the time, i make a losing call on the river. Especially when he overbets the pot. When he bets $170 into a $130 pot and i call, i need to be good ~56% of the time to make the call correct. Against his range i clearly am not. Bad call by me.

Hand 8: Turn fold aces

There's a few limpers and i raise it up with AA in MP. Three callers, which isn't a very good sign. Flop looks pretty good so i throw out a standard c bet. I will easily bust this hand against bil and fotspor but i was hoping baaard would fold. He is quite a tight player, probably around 15/11 so his range is quite tight on the flop. I doubt he has AK or KK as he would raise them preflop. His range is confined to sets and KQ type hands i think. With his turn action i think i have to fold. He is just so tight and it is such a dry board that i think i am beaten.

That's enough for today. Hopefully my downswing will turn around and i will continue to bring in $$. Here's to upswings.

Good session, results mediocre

2007-08-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

Played a good long session of 2323 hands. Only ended up $431.67 though which really sucks. Pretty swingy session today. Surprisingly all of my profit came from 3/6 which is quite a change. I ended up $756.90 at 3/6 and down $325.23 at 2/4. Here's today's graph.

Shoulda quite around hand 2075. Here's today's biggest winners and losers.

Hand 1: Nice to be a fav

Pretty self explanatory hand here. It's always nice when you get the money in as a 89% favourite.

Hand 2: SC's baby

By the end of this session opp and i were playing with 400bb's each. Anyways he is a pretty big fish so i expect him to be calling preflop with a big range. I can easily call his flop raise as i have decent odds and expect to be paid off if i hit my hand. Turn is a great card. I pick up 6 more outs. I was undecided on my turn action. I think raising all in is bad because against this type of player i can call to hit my hand and still get paid off. I think my fold equity is minimal.

Let's check out my pot odds. On the turn i'm getting $292-$120 or 2.43-1. I need ~29% equity to make this call profitable. I could do with even less because i expect to be paid off by this player. Here's my equity against a medium range i put opp on.

Board: 8c Tc 3d 5s
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 34.091% 34.09% 00.00% 1515 0.00 { 6c4c }
Hand 1: 65.909% 65.91% 00.00% 2929 0.00 { JJ+, TcTh, TcTs, 8c8h, 8c8s, 8d8s, 3c3h, 3c3s, 3d3s, AcKc, ATs, KTs, QTs, J9s+, T8s, ATo, KTo, QTo, J9o+, T8o }

Clearly i have enough equity to make the call profitable. I also don't think he has a set very often so if i take those hands out i am doing even better.

Hand 3: I know what you have

When nkr cold calls out of position preflop i have a pretty good idea of his range. Generally i put him on 99+ AQs+. This can be skewed tighter or looser accordingly, but the general gist of the range is there. The flop is perfect as it is not very threatening to him and my range can be pretty wide still. Easy call for me.

Hand 4: Bet bet bet

I feel like i missed a ton of value here. Opp is a fish that will bust any top pair, possibly 2nd pair, etc, etc. He makes those min 3 bets against me quite often. Also notice that we are 200bb deep here. I gladly make a 4 bet because of our history and the fact that we are deep. The flop is dry and hit me hard to i check it to him. I think he might even peel another card with KK if i reraise so thats what i do. I'm surprised when he min reraises me. I think i should just call here and let AK hang himself on the turn. However i also don't think AK folds here. If he has a lower set then i'm obviously fine with letting have a free card to his 1 outer. I'm guessing he had AJ, AQ or AK and managed to find a fold. Bad play by me.

Hand 5: SC in position

Opp that limped on the button is a huge fish and has been doing so often. What has been happening is either me or illusionist raises and take down the dead money. I don't think illusionist has a big hand here. I happily call with 76s in position. Flop is marginal but i think i can definitely be ahead. Raising isn't good because worse hands fold better hands call and he might even make a play at me. Great turn. I'm not sure why i didn't raise the turn. I don't think it's a huge mistake though. Got some value on the river. I think its a bad river call by QQ there.

Hand 6: Spew

I'm not proud of this hand. Eurofish is a good TAG that has been giving me some trouble. I finally get a hand against him and see a bad flop. I don't mind my flop bet as i mix up betting and checking with KK. His min raise looked like he wanted to take away the pot for cheap. I called to see what he did on the turn. Bad card as QQ just got there. On riv he shoves, which to me looks like the fishiest line he could take with AQ. Still a bad call on my part, but i give him props on his line.

Hand 7: Prob spew as well

Preflop i gladly tag along with great pot odds and a deceptive hand. Good flop. I'm ahead of any 1 pair hand without a diamond. It get very interesting when heaven bets $76 and get 2 callers. The pot is huge here. I have to expect at least one big hand here. I should have also realized that a higher flush draw is probably out there as well. Either way, i don't think my line is horrible as i'm ahead of AK and have outs against a set.

Thats enough for today. I'm still running ~$2300 below expectation. I'm not worried though as i have a ton of poker left to play in August. I also just came off a decent upswing so my treading water right now isn't unexpected. GL.

Playing good, running bad

2007-08-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today was a frustrating session. I just couldn't get anything going. It seemed like whenever i won a stack and got some momentum i got sucked out on or got into a setup situation and lost a bunch. Ah well, it'll turn around. So far on the month i'm running $2400 below expectation. Here's today's graph.

Let's check out some hands.

Hand 1: Tough AA situation

Opp is a pretty big fish with a big stack. At the time, however, he was an unknown. I saw some loosish stats from him but didn't see him do anything stupid. Flop is ok, i make a standard value bet and get called. I think a set raises me here most of the time as does a big draw. Turn is not a good card. For some reason i don't think he has the flush - i put him on a weak made hand type hand. It was probably the timing of his call and check. I don't really know what to do but figure i can't be losing much by shoving. Looks like he was a bigger fish than i thought.

Hand 2: AQ>JJ

Preflop is weird. I make a standard 3 bet and he makes a min 4 bet. Opp doesn't have a full buyin and seems weak to me. I don't want to 5 bet and i think folding is weak. I probably have at least 30% equity against his range so a call is good. Awesome flop, thanks for the stack. If i was in his shoes i either check call that flop or make a cbet.

Hand 3: Standard setup

Obv there is nothing i change about how i played this hand. Stupid setup's.

Hand 4: Awesome call

Opp is a relative unknown. Seems slightly fishy to me. I raise preflop for value with my AJ and to get the dead money in the pot from the limpers. Flop action is very interesting. Sometimes i just call that flop but i felt like i needed to see where i was at. There are a ton of draws that can hit on the turn and i probably have the best hand so i raise it up to get value from drawy hands and so i know if i am beat. After i make this raise the hand gets strange. He thinks about it until there is 1 second left on his clock before he pushes. Now, this is party, there is no time bank. If he clicked a second later his hand would have been folded. For this reason i took a set and 2 pair hands out of his range. There's no way he risks losing the hand due to a timeout by hollywooding. Now his range looks like a draw that didn't know what to do. I guess sometimes he will show up with an overpair as well. I took all my time and made the right call only to get owned on the turn.

Hand 5: You 5 bet me with that?

Villian and i haven't clashed yet in this session. He is a decent TAG with 18/15ish stats. Could be a little tighter than that. I haven't been getting out of line with my 4 bets. I don't think i've even made many at all this session. I think he makes a big mistake of going all in after i make the 4 bet. Very rarely in those circumstances do i show up there with air. Stupid coinflips.

Hand 6: Meh bad riv call

Opp is a huge fish. I feel probably 70% good on the turn with my hand. I didn't feel like he had a jack. When he bets out on the river, however, in retrospect i think i should have folded. The only missed draw he bets is Q10. He probably doesn't bet a K out like that. It could be a jack, but i didn't think he had one. But honestly this fish was so terrible. Is this river call that bad?

Hand 7: Soooo many outs

Opp is a big fish. We haven't tangled too much yet. Most of the time i 3 bet him preflop but he had been limping almost every time into my BB so his raise was out of the ordinary. I didn't want to be bet off my hand. Flop is great; i feel ahead of 95% of his range. He will peel cards with 2nd, 3rd pair or worse so i'm not too worried with his call. I think i can bet him off his hand a good % of the time on the turn. I miss on the river and am not sure what to do. His turn call makes me think he won't be folding on the blank river. I don't think he has a K though, or even a strong hand for that matter. After seeing his hand i'm still not sure what i should have done. He might have called me down there. I just checked the equity of our hands on the flop and the turn. On the flop i am 62% to win the hand. Surprisingly - at least to me - i lose a huge % of my equity on the turn. On the turn i am only 36% to win the hand. I still think a turn bet is correct though because of all the hands he would call a flop raise with. A 9 would have been a oh so sweet river. :)

That's it for today. Hopefully tomorrow i can get in a good long session and put up some great numbers. I made my 2nd vid today as well and i think it turned out really well. Later all.

Playing great

2007-08-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

I played a long session today of around 2500 hands. For 98% of that time i feel like i played really great. I didn't tilt, i made good calls/folds, etc. I just felt like i was in control. And it's not because i am running especially well - i only made around $900 on the day which is slightly below expectation. Here's today's graph.

I think i misplayed only a few hands on the day, although one that cost me $600. lol. Ah well, i know i learned from it. Here's the big hands of the day.

Hand 1: Rockets against fish

This hand is pretty straightforward even though we are ~140bb's deep. Opp is a big fish that has gotten the better of me. What range do we put him on on the flop? Limp call UTG looks to me like a mid pair, decent ace, or some random suited hand. The mid pairs have that flop crushed. Against a decent player i probably call the flop and reevaluate the turn. In this case, however, i didn't think i could fold against such an idiot.

Hand 2: Scary AA

This hand is kind of interesting because i am against 2 opponents. I make a standard 3 bet, a little larger than normal because of stack sizes, and get a surprise when robbie cold calls. I noticed that Graf calls 3 bets with a wider range than most; as i saw him showdown J8s. So the range i put on graf is mid pairs, AK, AQ, and maybe a small % of the time he has suited crap. Robbie's range is probably 99+ and AK. Either way this flop sucks. I feel like i have to bet though. Turn robbie insta shoves. Can i fold? I think the pot was too large for me to find a fold. Does he ever have air here?

Hand 3: 4 bet resteal

This hand is very very interesting. FYI i have been punishing lucky and controlling the table for the past 60 hands or so. I feel like lucky is very frustrated with me and looking to get me. Right when i raised on the BTN, i thought to myself, 'this would be a great spot to squeeze'. I'd squeeze there with any 2 if i was in his situation because you have a loose BTN opener and a huge fish cold call in the SB. Anyways he does make the raise and i feel right away he's FOS. I make a 4 bet and know i have to call if he shoves. He thinks about it and does end up shoving with AQo...which i think is awful. He is crushed by my range 95% of the time there.

When he pushes and i call, i am getting pot odds of $598-$249, or about 2.4-1. I need to be good ~29% of the time to make the call profitable. Against a sane 5 bet pushing range i am 30% to win. This is actually more breakeven than i thought. Either way, i thought he was 3 betting such a huge range that i could pick up his raise most of the time. I still think that. Also the metagame factors of making this play will reap me huge $$ when i play with him again. I just have to make sure to adjust properly.

Hand 4: Massacre

This hand sucked. It's against same opp as above. I think he will play much looser against me after my 75s 4 bet. Anyways good flop, bet call. Turn i think i can still be ahead as i take a set, AK, AQ out of his range because he doesn't raise after i bet. River is interesting. I think my river bet is wrong though. I commit myself to the pot and if he does go all in i am nearly always beat. I prefer a check call or a blocking bet. I give him props though, he played that set awesome against me.

Hand 5: Turn push or call?

Preflop standard. Opp's flop checkraise is scary because it looks so much like a set. I don't want to commit myself to the hand yet so i call his raise and check out the turn. Great turn. JJ is unlikely as is KJ now. His possible hands seem to be 66, a draw, AK or KQ. I think i should have pushed the turn. It seemed about 50/50 to me if i was beat or not. Bad river.

Hand 6: Gross AA spot

Eww multiway pot w AA. Gross flop. I feel like i have to bet it though. I am done with the hand on the turn. River is weird. Fish bets out pot in first position on the river. KQ got there as did 78. I dont think he has 78 and KQ is unlikely as he would probably bet the turn. Regardless, is he ever bluffing here? I dont think i like my call.

Hand 7: Passive opp

Opp is quite tight, something like 15/7. Preflop is standard as even somebody that tight has a wide range in the SB. Flop is awful and i check expecting him to take it away. His turn action is strange. It looked so weak to me - it looked like he didn't know what to do. I call with the plan to raise a small river bet or make a big bet myself. I also figure i have outs to the flush. Riv he checks and i fire near pot and he folds. Wonder what he had?

Thats all for today i'm heading out for sushi then a party. Good luck everyone. Comments are welcome as usual.

Time to get serious

2007-08-09T19:11:00.001-07:00

I've been away visiting family for the past week. It's been a great time; seeing friends that i haven't seen in a long time, and seeing my new neice, Laura. Even though i had a great time i am glad to be home and back in the grind. I made something like $70 on my trip playing drunk 1/2 online but other than that i haven't played at all before today. I had a good long session today but the results weren't there. Here's the graph.

After reading CTS's blog again i've decided to blog about all the big pots (generally if i win or lose a stack) i'm involved in. I'll also look at any interesting smaller pots. I'm looking at playing 1500-2k hands/day for the rest of the month so i should be blogging a ton. Here we go.

Hand 1: Flush>2 pair

This hand is pretty standard. Easy open, awesome flop. I decide to call the flop because i can get value from another loose opp behind me. I think the rest of the hand is standard. I don't much like opp's play on the river. I almost never raise AI on riv without having 2 pair beat.

Hand 2: Interesting JJ

Opp is a big fishy playing something like 45/4. Good flop for me, i'm so far ahead of his calling range it isn't even funny. Turn is good as well, i go to value town. River is interesting because even though he sucks, what does he call the rest of his chips with? Either way i decide to go all in and get a surprise when i see his cards.

Hand 3: Insta shove flop? O RLLY

I raise a seemingly standard TAG pre with my beautiful AKs. Awesome flop, only problem is he insta shoves. lol. I realize with him making that play i have to think of him as a fish, and therefore call. But what range can i put him on? Does a random A do this? Set? Either way i was baffled but think i had to make the call. Nice hand.

Hand 4: Oh AQ...

Opp is a fish but not a huge one. He spews in some ways but in some others plays pretty decent. I'm always wary when calling a 3 bet with AQ but i felt a little better with it against him. Flop is good, i call to keep him bluffing if he is and not give him my stack if he isn't. Turn is great, yet he bets again. AK? Full house? Weaker ace? I'm slightly scared of AK, but i can't fold yet. When he checks the riv i put him on a weak hand like KK or worse. I think my riv bet is good.

Hand 5: Top 2

Opp is a big fishy. Like soooo fishy. That said, does it really look like i'm good here? There's 4 bets on the flop before we get it in. Against a good player i expect to see a set or big draw most of the time but i think i'm in significantly better shape against this player. Lol bare flush draw.

Hand 6: I swear i'm 4-1!!

No content here, just venting. Lol. I screamed when i saw that flop.

Hand 7: AHH SETUP

This hand was going to be perfect. I'd 4 bet this guy at least 3 times and he'd folded every time. I was looking forward to stacking his chips then he showed up with AA. Blah.

Hand 8: Good play? Bad?

Opp is an unkown but the fact that he has 1/2 buyin stack makes me think he is weak. I have 2 options after his flop min raise i think. Call or go all in. If i call and don't hit the turn he will most likely push me off the hand. I have 8 clean outs to the nuts and probably 6 more with overcards. What range do we see him minraising me with? Let's check it out.

Tight raising/calling range:

Board: 6c 8d 9s
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 33.224% 33.01% 00.21% 30721 197.50 { JsTd }
Hand 1: 66.776% 66.56% 00.21% 61944 197.50 { 88+, 66, A9s, T7s, 97s+, 75s, A9o, T7o, 97o+, 75o }

I'm risking ~$160 to win $260 so i need to win at least 61.5% of the time to make the play profitable. Against this tight range it's not a good play. However i think his range is much looser. Even so, though, i don't see myself gaining that much equity. Let's take a look at the %'s against our known hands.

Board: 6c 8d 9s
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 50.000% 50.00% 00.00% 495 0.00 { JsTd }
Hand 1: 50.000% 50.00% 00.00% 495 0.00 { Ks8c }

Lol, as if we're exactly 50%. Combine that with any possible fold equity and i think my play is ok. This is very interesting though; as i thought my play was clearly profitable. Doing analysis like this is timely but worth it. Hope it helps you guys as well.

Thats all for today as i feel like i've been thinking/playing poker all day. I guess this is what it takes. Gl all.

Thanks whitewash

2007-07-31T20:36:00.001-07:00

Thanks for the comment, whitewash. I do realize my goals aren't specific enough. I really am disappointed with 4k in July, although with only 16k hands i'm still running decent. Anyways i'd like to be at 3/6 by september. Hopefully during school i can get at least 30k hands in per month. If i can make about 15k/month playing 3/6 then hopefully i can get to 5/10 by december. It's more about me being ready for 5/10 than the bankroll thats holding me back. Good comment though whitewash, i need to continue to make realistic goals. Good stuff.

Goodbye July

2007-07-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

July didn't turn out as well as expected. At least pokerwise. I had a lot of fun this month outside of poker. I went to Calgary for the stampede with 11 others, which was an awesome time. I also had a friend visit me for 5 days and we got started on some business ideas. Anyways for poker i only ended up around $4000 which is pretty disappointing. I believe that i played quite well for the most part; i just didn't get in enough hands. Here's the graph.

I was at a high of $7k so if i would have continued to run well i could have made $10k. Either way i didn't play enough hands. My goals for July were as follows:

1.) Play max 5 tables, preferably 4
-I find when i push it to 7 and 8 i don't think as deep as i should - kinda like i'm on autopilot
2.) Play solid, tilt-free poker
3.) 30k hands would be great
4.) After every session post the hands that are most interesting/confusing
5.) Constantly think about how to improve my game
6.) Comment on other people's blogs in the low limit grinder community
7.) $10k+ would be nice :)

I did pretty well on goal #1 although i did push it to 6-7 tables near the end of the month. I'm also quite happy with my play this month. When i felt myself tilting i quit the game - which i'm very proud of. Obviously i didn't play 30k hands. For the beginning of the month i did post after every session and review my results. It definitely helped a ton. As for thinking about how to improve my game, i did think up some ideas but haven't put them to paper yet. Things like 3 betting/4 betting ranges and opening ranges in every position. I didn't comment as much as i'd like - i will get better at this if people keep doing this. Obviously i didn't make 10k either. I think i can do it in august though.

I've decided that i'm being to relaxed about playing. For now this is my job and august is my last month to really put in the hours before school starts. I'm heading to winnipeg tomorrow for about a week to visit my baby neice. Thats right, i'm an uncle! Pretty crazy. For the 3 weeks i can play poker, however, i plan to play 4 hours a day. Hopefully this will amount to about 2k/day. I'm shooting for 30-40k hands in 3 weeks which i think is possible. What is really holding me back in poker is the hours i put in. Obviously 5k/month is great for a college student but i really want more. Time to prove to myself that i can attain more. August will be a great month. Good luck to everyone.

Leveling out

2007-07-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

Down about a buy in and a half over my last 2600 hands. Obviously i couldn't keep running so hot. No worries though; for the most part i feel like i am playing well. When you run bad you seem to get into much tougher situations then when you're running well. At least it seems that way for me. Here's my graph since Friday.

Here's some interesting hands. I've been playing some .5/1 and 1/2 heads up to try and learn the game better. It was going well until friday night when i just got smoked. I only lost about a buy in and a half but it seemed like i was losing every single pot.

Hand 1: Oh no, not 3/6 again

Lol here i am again playing 3/6. Once again i followed a huge fish who is in the hand in question. I checked the flop because he could raise me with a ton of hands and i can't continue if he does. Turn comes a scare card and i could bet, but i still see him calling/raising with a bunch of hands. Also i have some value so i want to see a showdown. River is an interesting card. I doubt he has the flush as he would have let me know sooner. I think the raise to $100 is fairly standard against such a fish. His shove catches me completely off guard though. Good/bad call?

Hand 2: Cool river bluff

I have a definite edge on this villian. After awhile he realizes it and won't play me anymore. lol. I mixed up the flop by leading out instead of checking and calling. The turn i think i could still be ahead of his range so i make the call. River he insta bets pot. This was a very strange play. Flush is unlikely, and i doubt he woulda insta pot it if he did have it. He doesn't insta bet pot with a straight either. Neither does AJ type hands. Possibly he has 2 pair AQ type hand or a set, but i also find those unlikely. The river is also a great scare card. I added it all up and figured he was trying to take the pot away.

Hand 3: How aggro are these games?

This hand is standard; i'm just trying to understand the villian's thought process. Most of the time i don't bet this flop unless i'm going with the hand. He can't think he has many outs. Then again ftp is rigged so he must have seen the K coming on the river. lol.

Hand 4: Overpair against fish

This xxchaserxx guy is a massive fish. I stacked him earlier with a set against his 2nd pair no kicker. I only called with QQ because i want him in the hand. Decent flop, and he insta bets 2x pot. Honestly he could have anything. I don't want to let him get away from the hand so i min raise him. The turn is a tricky card. I really wish party had a time bank. After thinking like crazy for the 15 seconds or w/e they give me, i thought he wouldn't play an A like that. Set, possibly, but not an ace. Ouch river. After he typed,'now we're even'. Lol.

I won't be playing or posting for about a week because my buddy gets in town today. Here's july so far. Good luck at the tables all.

Up Up Up...

2007-07-19T22:52:00.001-07:00

These last two days have been good to me. Other than losing another stupid barcelona qualifier, this time a $215 double shootout, im up ~$2600 in just 2200 hands. It's so nice to run well again after such a long time of running like crap. I've been thinking about my game alot lately and i feel i am improving. There's so much that i want to put on paper but im so damn lazy when it comes to those things. I enjoy playing but do not enjoy reviewing my play or studying. This grinders' community is great - it forces me to analyze. Hopefully in the next few days i can get all my thoughts about the game down on paper. Anyways here's the graph for my last two sessions.

It's always nice to have an upward sloping graph. I really should post after every session so i can remember the interesting hands.

Hand 1: 3 bet AA calldown

Opponent wasn't getting out of line at all. I think my 3 bet should have been a bit bigger, but i tend to vary the sizes. Sometimes i bet this flop but i felt that i fold out a ton of hands if i do. Check call is cool to me. Turn he fires a big bet and i'm confused. The only hands i see him doing this with are KK, AK, possibly 99, or complete air. I think AK is unlikely because of how large the bet is and just the speed he made it. I almost folded this turn actually. Good thing i didn't.

Hand 2: Another 3 bet situation

Here i am at stupid 3/6 again. I can't seem to win even though i feel like i have an edge. Maybe my 3 bet should have been to $80, but w/e it's not a huge mistake, if one at all. Good flop, standard c-bet. His call kinda confuses me and i'm not quite sure what to do on the turn. I take a lot of time and decide to play this hand for stacks. I bet smaller than usual to make it look like a 1010-QQ type hand who wants value but can't call an all in. I was sure surprised when i saw what he had.

These two hands, and others that i haven't posted, have made me totally rethink the calling ranges of villians. It seems i always put them on way too tight of a range. I am shown suited connectors, AQ, AJ type hands, small pairs, etc, etc. Should i be more willing to stack off with AK on a K high flop? Should i in turn start calling 3 bets more lightly? I still am 4 betting, but not enough. I did it twice against a dude who kept 3 betting me and after that he pretty much stopped. It seems to be effective. Anyways i'll keep thinking about this problem of 3 betting ranges.

Hand 3: Weird river call

Villian is a fish, although not an obvious one. I think preflop and flop are standard. Turn i check because i have a hand with value that i want to show down. River is weird. Flush draw missed, a completed straight draw is very unlikely. I doubt a medicore jack makes this type of river bet here. I didn't put him on an AJ type hand. A 9 or 8 doesn't make this bet. It looked to me like a weird 2 pair or a missed draw. Even 2 pair i think he bets more. Gutsy call i think, and not sure if it was +EV, but worked out. Also, this will help my metagame a ton. They'll be way less likely to bluff me on the riv and will probably play more passively.

Hand 4: Flop 3-bet bluff

This villian was definitely getting frustrated with me. I'd been running over the table and not meeting much resistance. Recently he'd been 3 betting a little more. Preflop his call was almost instant, which made me think he was weak. The timing on his flop raise was also pretty weird. It wasn't instant; it just felt wrong. I almost timed out because i've been burned with plays like these before. I felt he was weak and frustrated with me and went with my read. Good thing it worked out.

That's all for today. In the next couple days i hope to get in some good sessions. On sunday i have a buddy coming to visit from out of town so next week i don't think i'll be playing very much. Maybe before he comes ill make another 5k so i can meet my goal and take the rest of the month off. Let's hope so :).

JB's back, back again..

2007-07-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome time in Calgary this past week. I headed out with 11 others for the stampede. Really really good trip. I played some poker yesterday with meh results. I think i lost around $300 overall. Not a big deal though; i was down $1200 at one point. I also won a seat to WCOOP event #1 - $215 400k 6 max tourney. Still haven't won a seat to the 1k barcelona qualifer yet. Stupid donkaments. Here's yesterday's graph w/o tournies.

I also came 14th out of 530 in a $20 tourney. Made something like $75. Got it all in w AK v A2. Honestly. Ah well, i needed to win it to get any decent money.

Hand 1: TP against huge donk

This villian was donking off money like i'd never seen before. Pushing QJo pre, stacking off w bottom pair, gushots, really anything. The 2 big stacks at the table are all because of him. He reraised me fairly quickly which kinda looked like a big hand. I think my preflop call is marginal. I certainly don't do it against a competent player. I hit TP, i think i have to stack off here. He could have a 4, 7, J, FD, overs, str8 draw, etc, etc. Is my play ok?

Hand 2: Weird QQ spot

95% of the time i 3 bet preflop but i had a huge fish to my left that might be tilting so i decided to call and hope he tags along. Not a great flop but i have to call at least one bet. The turn is the ultimate scare card. I put him on a AJ type hand, possibly AK. Either way, after he makes his weak bet i feel i have to raise him. I admit i'm turning my hand into a bluff but i don't think he calls or pushes without a flush or a decent 10. Anyone like?

Hand 3: Coooooler

I didn't raise this flop because lately i seem to be running into sets a bunch and even with 12 outs or so my equity isn't great. Awesome turn and we get it in. Uh oh bad river. I think i played this fine.

I won't play a ton in the next week or so because a friend is coming from out of town. I'll try to get in as many hands as i can though. Good luck to everyone.

Haven't played a ton lately

2007-07-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy lately visiting friends from out of town/boating/partying but have managed to play some hands. Saturday i played a long heads up session against a donk and finished up around $500. I was up $900 at one point but he finally adapted his play and took a few pots from me. I played a $50 qualifier to the sunday million yesterday and managed to win a seat. Lol i managed to build my 120 chip stack up to 9k with 600/1200 blinds and a 120 chip ante :). I went pretty deep in the million, finished 300something out of 6.5k or so. Good for $850. Disappointing though, i lost with A10 to 910. Ah well. Here's the graph from saturday to today, not including the tourney win.

Overall on the month i'm up around $3800, which is very nice. Unfortunately i won't be playing much for the rest of the month. I'm heading to Calgary for the stampede from wednesday-sunday, then the week after my buddy is coming from out of town. Hopefully i'll still get in 20k hands. Here's some interesting hands.

Hand 1: Weakness

Villian is a standard TAG, perhaps tighter than most. He makes a small 3-bet and i call easily with 77 in position. Flop isn't great but he checks and i gladly take a free card. Turn changes nothing, check check. I think he would bet AA, AK, KK, KQ (if thats even in his range), and probably QQ on the turn. I'm kind of confused about his hand now. River A, and he makes a tiny 1/3 pot bet. I doubt he has AK by now as he would have bet the turn. AA and KK are very doubtful with how he has played it. His bet looks like either a QQ type hand looking to get value from who know's what, or total air. I smelled weakness so i raised him up and he folded. I think he has trouble calling with AQ there as well although i doubt thats in his river betting range.

Hand 2: Umm thanks :)

Ok i think this hand is pretty standard, at least on my end. Opp is a decent TAG who is quite aggressive when you show weakness. I checked the turn figuring he'd bet with a big heart or a top pair/2 pair type hand. I was going to checkraise AI. I think a flush is only a small part of his range. River is great, he goes AI and i expect to see the nut flush but see total air. Lol. I posted this hand because i have 2 more against him and his play here might come into our decision making.

Hand 3: Bluff against same TAG

This is a very aggro 3 handed game. I've seen opp 4 bet once and that was with QQ. I think he plays his big hands fairly standard pre. Preflop is standard. I check flop because i think he can raise a ton of hands if i bet. He makes a smallish bet. I think he felts AA, KK here for sure if i reraise. Probably QQ as well. A jack is a small part of his range as is 99. I think he bets this flop a huge % of the time because it doesn't look good for me. Any pair, any draw, etc etc. I decide to go for a check raise, representing huge strength. I think he has to fold everything except a jack, 99, AA or KK. Obv he might be tilting and push a huge draw, but does anyone like my play here?

Hand 4: Awesome river...or was it?

Same villain. Preflop, flop, and turn are standard i think. River is when it gets interesting. Keep in mind he's tight and aggro, so that makes his range a little easier to figure out. He could have a weak ace here when he bets out on the riv, or a 2 pair type hand. I decide to make a min raise because he probably doesn't call much more with a weak ace type hand. I puke when he reraises me quite big. I dont think AA, QQ, 99 or 66 is in his range. He's so aggro i just don't see him checking it to the river. AQ, doubtful. I don't think he plays 85. That leaves a 2 pair hand or 108. Remember he is capable of making crazy river bluffs. But i think my line looks quite strong as well. What do i do here?

Thanks again for the comments guys, they really help. This will probably be my last blog for a week or so. I might play some live cash games at the casino in Calgary. I think i'll play up to 5/10 because everybody tells me how fishy live games are. Anyways, good luck to everyone at the grinding.

No play today - random thoughts

2007-07-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

Played another $109 sat for barcelona today. Busted pretty early again. I played a 6-max $77 tourney tonight on stars. Busted shortly after the first hour but i feel my edge is way bigger than in a full ring tourny. Soo many fish as well. Like honestly calling off their stack with K10 on a 99xxx 3 spade board. Good thing i had K10 as well :).

I've noticed another hole in my game. Well this isn't entirely new, but it definitely seems to be a leak. I don't pay enough attention when i play. And i'm not talking about chatting on msn/aim, webbrowsing, talking on the phone, etc. I generally set up my tables and only play poker without many distractions. What i don't do, however, is really PAY ATTENTION to what's going on. I don't ask myself enough questions. I see somebody raise and look at it and go 'ok, he raised, i have xx what do i do.' When i am playing well i see him raise and think 'ok, he raised, he's a x/y TAG, what is his range, what do i do with my hand/image at the table?'

This is obviously better. But i need to take this even further. I was thinking about a good article gigabet posted on 2p2 a long time ago that i have saved on my comp...he talks about playing 6k hands a day, and for every hand, whether in it or not, looking at the action and predicting opponents' hands. Over time reads develop and you improve dramatically as you move into higher and higher stakes.

Obviously i won't be playing 6k hands a day...it's just not for me. However, what i can do is play my 1k or 2k hand session and completely focus for the entire time. Continually ask myself questions about my opponents hand ranges, their table image, my table image, how i can manipulate a fish the way i want, etc, etc. I think i will by far learn the most about my opponents by studying hands i am not involved in; where i can take an educated guess about their hand strength without bias. Hand reading is a vitally important skill as you progress to higher stakes. I am only seeing the beginnings of it at 2/4. I guess i'll make it a goal that i give 100% focus to my poker game when i am playing - don't go on autopilot. Engage in the hand whether i am 'involved' or not. Doing this over and over every session will make me a better player. There's not if's and's or but's about it.

Played bad today - lucky me i am a suckout king

2007-07-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

I am very frustrated with how i played today. I seemed to keep getting my money in bad and sucking out. For me this is not a good feeling. Obv i'd rather lose $700 than $3k, but in the long run i am getting eaten alive by putting my money in bad. I realized i was tilting and quit after only 800 hands which i think was the smart play. I also lost my 2nd $109 qualifier to the $1k Barcelona qualifier. AK against an awful played 77. Oh well. Last chance tomorrow. Here's today's cash game graph.

I've also gotta stop playing 3/6. It's not a huge jump from 2/4 and the play isn't any better but i've been losing this month. Total i'm up $3k from 2/4 and down $1150 at 3/6. Yea, 2 buyins is nothing but i should just stick to what's working from now on. The hands i'm going to post might get ugly, so flame away :D.

Hand 1: Another TPTK vs. Set hand

Villian is unkown, looks to be a fairly solid TAG. Good flop, then the mofo raises me. So what's his range? A set, KQ, KJ, J10s, AQs, AJs, KQs looks like a decent range. Whenever i get into this situation and look at their reraise i always think to myself, 'well, they could easily be doing that with a draw'. Ok, that may be true, but it is turning into a cop out for me. I basically just stick it in and hope. It's like i can't think anymore, lol. I think calling his raise is a better play. If an obvious draw hits on the turn and he makes a big bet i can fold, and if a draw misses and he still fires, i can reevaluate. True, i'll be out of position, but maybe this approach will help me stop mindlessly felting TPTK or an overpair against sets.

Hand 2: OMG i suck at poker

Looking over this hand...i hate my play on every street. Villian is a fish and the reason i am sitting. He's been raising a bunch but i don't think i should be 3-betting an obvious fish out of position with KJo. First mistake. Flop is ok, c-bet standard. The turn is weird. I hit a J and have some showdown value so i check it to him. He takes maybe 2 seconds and fires pot. My mind pretty much froze here. WTF? What possible logic leads him to insta fire pot, regardless of whether he had AA, JJ, 88, or complete air. I thought a long time and felt a fold was right but saw myself clicking the call button. lol. Beautiful river, and i rake in a big pot with a 5 outer. Still, i think i completely butchered this hand.

Hand 3: Stupid spot with set

Preflop is standard. Mzeal, who 3 bets, is a pretty tight player. I call pretty much only for set value. Flop i will do nothing with, so i check and expect mzeal to bet. Surprisingly he checks. What hands does he check here? The only hands that make sense to me are QQ or 99. Turn i make a set and bet it out. I'm not very scared of a flush as i think mzeals 3 betting range is pretty tight. Now what does mzeal have to push turn? AK, maybe. AA, KK, QQ, 1010, AQ, or a pure bluff is probably his range. I doubt its AA, KK, or AK though so i'll lower the possible combinations of those. Hmm against that range it's pretty close. I'm 54% with my set against the range of QQ+, TT, AQs+, AQo+. Obviously i made the right play calling the AI but at the time it felt wrong. Nice river.

Ok, maybe i didn't play as bad as i thought. AK hand i think was marginal, KJ i botched for sure, and JJ looks like it was ok. Tomorrow's my last chance to qualify for barcelona qualifyer. I WILL WIN. It's a skill game after all, eh?

Running hot

2007-07-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

It's true, i am officially running hot. I played 1177 hands and finished up $1682. I also finished 43 in a $55 tourny on stars out of about 1200 people that paid $250. Really disappointing in the tourney, as the winner got $15k and i was so close. Donkaments are way more frustrating than cash games. Here's today's graph.

Hand 1: Tricky spot with JJ

Standard preflop, looks like villian is isolating in position so i pop it up. I think a flop check is correct here although it might make my hand look transparent. He doesn't call with anything i beat i dont think, unless 1010 or 99 or something. Turn i think is marginal. He bets AA, KK, QQ for sure on the turn as well as AK most likely. It just looked like a bluff. Good call? Fold?

Hand 2: Overpair call

I was pushing around this villian quite a bit and sensed he was getting frustrated with me. His flop raise looks really fishy to me. AA, KK very unlikely, a set probably doesn't raise. That leaves his range at a T, complete air, or a small % of the time a set. I call because i don't want to push him off a worse hand and give myself a chance to fold if a scare card comes on the turn. Turn is a blank and he insta shoves. I was 95% sure he was FOS so i called and he showed 99 which i think he completely butchered.

Hand 3: Very interesting AA

Villian is a huge fish. After his flop call i am worried about him having an 8, but i definitely see small pairs and spades in his hand range. Whether or not to bet the turn was an issue for me here. I ended up checking but i'm not sure if this is the correct play. The river is by far the most interesting card though. I make pretty much the nuts other than 1010 and an 8. He bets out $75...what is my play here? It doesn't really look like he has a 10 here...could he have slowplayed an overpair? I decide to go to value town and min raise him. I get raised almost right away. Against a 40/x whatever type player, can i fold this?

Hand 4: LOL BAD BEAT

This one's just for a little amusement. I'm 92% to win on this flop. Good thing he was a donk shortstack.

Thats all for today, don't feel like playing any more. I'm trying to win a seat in the EPT Barcelona event. I've always wanted to go to barcelona and will be able to meet a friend there and visit the gf. There's 3 $109 MTT's to get into the $1k qualifier. Lost the first one yesterday with JJ against AK. Hopefully it goes better tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Swingy session

2007-07-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

Today's session was pretty crazy. Definitely the most variance i have encountered in a single session. I ended up making $1350 over 1376 hands, so it certainly worked out well. $-160 in donkaments and i'm at around $1200 on the day. I've got a few hands from last night on here as well. Here's the graph.

I got into a few tough spots. I think i'm going to post 4 or 5 hands i'd like feedback on, so bear with me.

Hand 1: Marginal bluff

Villian is unknown. I don't always do this preflop but with so much money in the pot and a decent hand i will raise it up sometimes. I get called in one spot. He certainly repops 1010+ and AK imo. This leaves his range at 22-99 as well as A5+ and KQ type hands. Flop is mediocre but i make a strong bet representing an overpair as i rarely raise out of the blinds without a good hand. I feel that 90% of the time on this board he raises with a set. So let's take 77 and 55 out of his range. He could make a call with 1010. The turn brings mixed emotions for me. 1010 is less likely but it's not the scariest card to come. I decide to bet again and continue to represent. His call kind of confuses me, but i feel he raises a set 100% of the time here as well as a naked 10. So now i put him on a flush draw, small pp, or possibly a straight draw. I decided to go AI on the riv altho i know i am giving him 3-1 on his money. Does anybody like? I'm still not sure how i feel about this hand.

Hand 2: Another bluff

Villian is a decent tag, 21/12 or so over a few thousand hands. Notice we're both fairly deep here. Another bit of info about opp is he's more passive than most on flops. Doesn't c-bet as much as some. I feel he can fold a lot of hands here, and i play a set or flush draw exactly the same so i bet out. I feel he raises with a set, AK, or a flush draw here. Turn is a good scare card for me to bet. If he made the flush on the turn i see him raising a huge % of the time. That leaves his range at AK or some other hand like QQ with a diamond where he's being stubborn. The river doesn't change anything but i think i can rep a huge hand here. I throw out a big bet and feel he can't call without a flush or top set. I don't see AK calling here.

Hand 3: Think i botched this one

Rumlan is a massive fish, Danwhirl looks like an ok TAG. I have a ton of draws on the flop but feel i will get paid off if i hit and don't want to get raised out of the pot so i just call. I think this is fine so far. Turn i make a str8 but there's a lot of boats out there and im looking for a fairly cheap showdown. The river is interesting. Dan has bet into be 3 times and his river bet is a strong one. What do we think his range is? AK, KQ, KJ, K10, QQ,? He could figure that i'm drawing seeing as i didn't raise the flop or turn. Can i make a call here? I think i am behind his range of firing all 3 streets and should have folded.

Hand 4: No idea

I get AA against huge fish, woot. Flop is bad but his calling range is so wide i think i need to bet. I don't know what to do on the turn. I think checking is terribly weak as i let him draw to a ton of outs on the river. The problem with betting, though, is i have no idea what to do if raised. His range certainly includes a 7 but if i dont bet because im scared of only a 7 then im wasting my aces against this fish. Do i bet this turn? Did i make the right fold?

Hand 5: Big pot in case these losing hands are getting depressing

Approximately 200bb effective stack against huge fish. He min raises me, w/e, thats a huge range and my implied odds are through the roof. Great flop, i see a 9 in his range like 1% of the time. I'm not scared of 1010, once he calls my raise i put him on QQ+. Great turn, great riv, i stack the fish and he shows QQ. Lol. Seriously free money.

That's all for today. I hope to hear some comments about these hands. I think i screwed up a couple but maybe thats just the results-oriented part of me talking. O yea bonus - i won $1200 in poker today, got my tax refund for about $850, and found out i got a scholorship from school for $1500. :D. Should cover my ticket to aussie town next february. Woot!

Good first session - bad results

2007-07-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

I feel that i played really well today. Overall i ended up losing around $750. This isn't a big deal, but is slightly disappointing. I also had a good sweating session with a friend and i feel like i picked up a few good points about what to do in 3-betting situations. Here's the day's graph. I also lost around $300 on cakepoker that isn't tracked.

Here's a few interesting hands.

Hand 1: Flush against fish

This hand is against a big fish who is 44/26 over 83 hands. He is the reason i am at the table. Right when i sat down i saw him get stacked with 2nd pair with K10 on a Q10xx board. His turn minraise is fishy, but his range is still a Q, a 6, random high club, small 2 pair type hand. On the river i am getting $315-to-$125 or 2.52-to-1. I only need to be good ~28% of the time. His line looks like a flush, but against this type of player i think i have to call. Agree/disagree?

Hand 2: Bluffffffff

This is a very interesting hand. Rick had 3 bet me a fair amount and with my implied odds i felt like 88 was an easy call. Not a terrible flop for me. QQ and JJ are now very unlikely in his range. His bet is also kind of weird - a little too small. Normal c-bets here are $75+. I feel like he doesn't bet 1010 and below here for sure. QQ would probably bet, as well as KK, AA, and AQ. However, with the size of the bet and just the timing, i think AK is a big part of his range. I also feel that i can represent a J quite easily and if i put the pressure on him it will make a tough call for AA or KK.

The turn is nothing and i check and see what he will do. He checks and either has a missed AK or is going for pot control with AA, KK, or AQ. I feel that QQ bets here a large % of the time. The river is a very interesting card. Kind of a mixed blessing for me. All the draws hit so he has to be worried unless he has precisely KK. I think even AK or AA has a tough call on river if i make a bet, so i followed through. I wish i had made the bet bigger though. I think $180-$190 would be optimal. In his eyes i think he has to put me on a J, a draw that just hit, or less of the time KK. Like/dislike?

Only 2 hands for today. The rest were fairly standard. On a side note, does anybody know where i can pick up these shoes online? They're Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66's. Keep in mind, i live in canada. Can't find anywhere that ships to canada.

July Goals and Happy Canada Day

2007-07-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking alot about my poker game this past month, and i really think i have improved. My results didn't end up being great, but they'll come. Here's some goals for July.

1.) Play max 5 tables, preferably 4
-I find when i push it to 7 and 8 i don't think as deep as i should - kinda like i'm on autopilot
2.) Play solid, tilt-free poker
3.) 30k hands would be great
4.) After every session post the hands that are most interesting/confusing
5.) Constantly think about how to improve my game
6.) Comment on other people's blogs in the low limit grinder community
7.) $10k+ would be nice :)

Here's my june graph. It didn't help that i lost $2500 yesterday :S. $1800 i got sucked out on, so what can ya do.

Haven't played yet today. Not sure if i will. Went boating then for a run and now got some company over. Just found out they canceled the fireworks for celebrating Canada day. Apparently they don't have some safety device they need. Ah well.

Random thoughts about 4-betting

2007-06-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

It seems that in today's aggro games 3-betting has become quite popular. I've really been struggling with how to deal with it. Most of the time i just call with both my monsters, AA, KK, as well as occasionally some speculative hands. The problem with this approach is that i do nothing to discourage people from 3-betting me. I end up going to the flop without the lead in the hand as well as in a pot that is much larger than normal. Most of the time i am in position, but when a single c-bet takes the pot down so much it negates the advantage of position.

If we assume that people are 3-betting light, which i believe is a correct assumption, then 4-betting becomes all that more profitable. The problem is deciding who to 4-bet and when to 4-bet. Obv we want to 4-bet the aggro TAG's who are 3-betting light. I find myself 4-betting without a reason, and usually only with big hands. So let's do a little math.

Let's assume $400 effective stacks. Let's also assume that the action goes: Raise to $16, 3-bet to $52, 4-bet to $155, and if applicable, 5-bet AI to $400.

We figure that the villian will either 5-bet push or fold to our 4-bet. A standard range for a villian to 5-bet AI is QQ+, AKs, AKo. Obviously once villians figure out what we're doing they will push a wider range, but thats why we can adjust.

Anyways, we're risking $155 to win $52, so we need villian to fold approximately 66% of the time, or 2/3.

The range of QQ+, AKs, AKo is 2.6% of hands. Villian must be 3-betting us with at least 2.6%*3 = 7.8% to make 4-betting break even. This hand range is 88+, ATs, KTs, QJs, AQo+. I think it's a given that many villians are 3-betting a much wider range than that. I personally think that many aggro opponents 3-bet with 15% or more of their hands. The range of 15% is 77+, A7s+, K9s+, QTs+, JTs+, ATo+, KTo+, QJo+.

EV 4-betting (against 15% 3-better): (82.7%*$52) - (17.3%*$155) = $43.004-26.815 = $16.20.

Obviously the wider range they 3-bet the more profitable it is to 4-bet. Now what happens if they 5-bet AI? We will be getting pot odds of $400+155 = $555-to-245 = 2.26-to-1. We need equity of 30.67% to be able to call profitably. Against the range of QQ+, AKs, AKo, we can call with any pair (22 has equity of 34%), AKs, AKo, and 76s and A5s are just break even.

If we add 99-JJ as well as AQs, AQo, AJs, AJo to their 5-bet pushing range, then we can profitably call with AQs, AQo, AJs, AJo, and the suited connectors are still very marginal.

The point here is that in this new era of bet/3-bet poker we have to have the 4-bet in our arsenal. Also we can't overlook the metagame factors of 4-betting. We don't gain a huge amount of EV against a standard 3-better, but by 4-betting we discourage villians to 3-bet us at all. They will either have to start 5-betting, just call our 3-bets, or fold. People will start to play passively against us which is a major bonus. And most of the time we will be in position when they call, so more power to us.

I don't know if all of my math is right, but the basic concept is there. Let me know if anything is wrong or if you have any other suggestions.

I was going to post hands but looked through today's session and nothing out of the ordinary came up. Played around 1400 hands and finished up $900. Good day.

Frustrating day at the tables

2007-06-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today didn't go so well. I played my longest session ever, 2k hands, and lost about $1/hand. haha. Losing 5 buyins sucks, but it's not a huge deal. I probably made 1 buyin or $400 worth of mistakes, but you can't play perfectly when constantly getting sucked out on. Anyways, if the hands would have worked out, i probably wouldn't have given them a second thought. I'll try to analyze my game both when winning and losing, altho i obv tend to do it when losing more.

Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1214849

This is a very interesting hand. Villian is a decent 21/14 TAG but haven't seen anything special from him. I make a standard raise and he calls in position. My c-bet is standard me thinks, but then he makes a quick pretty small raise. First i think we should put a range on his calling requirements preflop. I'd say 22-88, A9, A10, AJ, KQ, KJ, 87, 65, 98, 109 is a pretty accurate range. I doubt he would cold call with 99+, AQ+, although i suppose it is possible.

With that range in mind, what hands would he raise that flop? The mid pair hands are doubtful because if he raises he folds out my worse hands and i either call or reraise the hands i have him crushed. I don't think a 5 is in his range, and if he's raising 22 well more power to him. I almost timed out but ended up calling and probably trying to take the pot away on the turn. I put him on a marginal pair or total air here.

The turn is a good card for me. I check it to him and he makes a very small bet. Looked like he was scared and didn't want to commit himself. I obv didn't want to commit myself either so i make just over a min raise. My line here looks very strong, and i see all but his strongest hands folding. Anyone like/dislike? I realize this is very player dependent but i think my read was spot on here.

Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1214877

Been getting smoked at this table but have 2 major fishies sitting to my left. Epa is one of them and dick is a decent TAG. Gin flop, standard bet, called in 2 spots. Epa could have any hand whatsoever but dick's range is slightly more difficult. He raises a set here as well as AQ most likely. I put him on a draw or a KQ or QJ type hand.

Turn is the gross king so i immediately expect doom the way i was running this session. lol. There is a case for betting but i don't think checking is a big mistake. I'm not going to win a big pot here unless somebody has a 2pair/set type hand and i think they would have let me know by now.

River doesn't change anything, but dick bets out nearly pot into 2 opponents. It really looks like he is trying to get value and the only had i see him having is J10. My position sucks because if i call and Epa wakes up with J10 i'm sunk. Did i make the right fold?

Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1214897

I'm playing with a massive fish here, he is 55/5 over 374 hands. Yes i know, DEAD MONEY! haha. Anyways i make a raise to isolate him, i dunno why its only $12, i usually do $16 but w/e. Rep the flop, standard. Turn i make the nuts and he bets out. Here's where it gets interesting. I raise him up and he calls. The thing with this guy is his range is still very wide here. Any A, T, or 2 pair type hand calls me here.

He bets out on the riv again and i'm pretty sure we're chopping. Against a good opponent i'll just call, but i dont think this is right against this guy. I still think he calls my push with 2 pair, a set, a 10, or a backdoor flush. Flush is unlikely, 10 is quite likely, but i think theres a good chance he'll call off worse hands. Obv i lost to his flush, but does anybody like my river push? Lemme know.

Thats all for today. I quit cash games and played a $25 donkament on full tilt. Came 10th -bubble boy- out of like 600. Lost 1010 to A2. Stupid tourneys.

Few hands that bothered me

2007-06-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

Whenever i get involved in a very weird situation i try to save the hand history so i can review it later. I've got a few from a little while ago.

Hand 1: I think i made this call because i was distracted multitabling and the villians line was so weird. In retrospect i think it's a clear fold.

***** Hand History for Game 6080607272 *****
$400 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, June 20, 17:57:25 ET 2007
Table Table 127748 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 1: pG_AllAreas ( $981.80 USD )
Seat 3: Messier111 ( $400 USD )
Seat 4: SootedNines ( $394 USD )
Seat 2: Kerre1 ( $202 USD )
Kerre1 posts small blind [$2 USD].
Messier111 posts big blind [$4 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SootedNines [ Ac Kc ]
SootedNines raises [$16 USD]
pG_AllAreas calls [$16 USD]
Kerre1 folds
Messier111 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6h, Tc, 9c ]
SootedNines bets [$28 USD]
pG_AllAreas is all-In [$965.80 USD]
SootedNines is all-In [$350 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ts ]
** Dealing River ** [ Js ]
SootedNines shows [ Ac, Kc ]a pair of Tens.
pG_AllAreas shows [ 9d, 9s ]a full house, Nines full of Tens.
>You have options at Jackpot #1304940 (No DP) Table!.
pG_AllAreas wins $587.80 USD from side pot #1 with a full house, Nines full of Tens.
pG_AllAreas wins $792 USD from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of Tens.

When i made my c bet he instantly pushed. This really confused me because what hand would a sane person insta push? There's no reason to insta push a straight or set. He's almost never going to get paid off. I only had like 15 seconds to act, stupid party, so i made the call but regretted it almost right away. Heres the pokerstove calcs i just did.

Board: 6h Tc 9c
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 42.910% 42.61% 00.30% 14344 99.50 { AcKc }
Hand 1: 57.090% 56.79% 00.30% 19117 99.50 { KK+, TT-99, 66, ATs, KcQc, QJs, J8s, 8h7h, 8s7s, 8c7d, 8c7h, 8c7s, 8d7h, 8d7s, 8h7s }

According to the pot odds of $444-to-$350, or 1.27-to-1, i need to be good approximately 44% of the time to make the call profitable. Looking at my equity in the hand, it's actually a lot closer than i thought. I was a bit generous with his range though, i think KK+ he would have reraised pre, and AT might not make the push there. Either way i sacrificed ~$16 of EV. I think its much better to fold here and look for a better spot - especially when i don't know my opponent that well.

Hand 2: This is a spot that i get into all the time and never really know what to do. On this particular flop i felt even more uneasy about stacking off, but we'll see what pokerstove says i gess.

FullTiltPoker Game #2758774827: Table Isola (6 max) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:32:01 ET - 2007/06/24
Seat 1: azn fella ($423.90)
Seat 2: KaiserHorst ($406.10)
Seat 3: ERICSCOTT1 ($296.40)
Seat 4: SootedNines ($406)
Seat 5: The Great Hug ($400)
Seat 6: sopoor ($186.65)
KaiserHorst posts the small blind of $2
ERICSCOTT1 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SootedNines [Kh Ks]
SootedNines raises to $14
The Great Hug folds
sopoor folds
azn fella calls $14
KaiserHorst folds
ERICSCOTT1 folds
*** FLOP *** [6s Ts 2d]
SootedNines bets $25
azn fella raises to $90
SootedNines has 15 seconds left to act
SootedNines raises to $392, and is all in
azn fella calls $302
SootedNines shows [Kh Ks]
azn fella shows [6c 6d]
*** TURN *** [6s Ts 2d] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [6s Ts 2d 5s] [9c]
SootedNines shows a pair of Kings
azn fella shows three of a kind, Sixes
azn fella wins the pot ($815) with three of a kind, Sixes
SootedNines is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $818 | Rake $3
Board: [6s Ts 2d 5s 9c]
Seat 1: azn fella (button) showed [6c 6d] and won ($815) with three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 2: KaiserHorst (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: ERICSCOTT1 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: SootedNines showed [Kh Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 5: The Great Hug didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: sopoor didn't bet (folded)

Folding overpairs is always a tough thing to do, and knowing when to do it is crucial. The problem with this flop is it isn't all that draw heavy. There are some overcard and gutshot + flush draw type hands he can have, but a set is a large part of his range.

Board: 6s Ts 2d
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 50.161% 50.16% 00.00% 15891 0.00 { KhKs }
Hand 1: 49.839% 49.84% 00.00% 15789 0.00 { AcAh, AcAs, AdAs, AhAs, KcKs, QcQh, QcQs, QdQs, TT, 66, 22, AsKs, AsQs, AsJs, ATs, KsQs, 8s7s, 4s3s, ATo }

In this situation once i make the raise to $90 i have to call his push if i think my equity is close to the 50% pokerstove says it is. In reality i think i could have folded on this flop. My stats on the villian didn't come up till after the hand, but i saw that he was playing quite tight. Either way, calling might have been a mistake, but it was very slight. On a board like 9s8sx i stack off almost all the time because they's way more draws out there

Anyways, i plan on doing this stuff alot in the coming months, so hopefully itll pay off at the tables. Heres a shout out to my poker buddy Raffi, who is soon going to be tearing up the tables and taking the poker world by storm. Hehe. Later all.

New blog

2007-06-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

Well i seem to already be onto my second blog. I am creating this one mainly because of a poker challenge on cardrunners.com. Lately it seems i haven't been improving as fast as i used to. An obvious reason is that i am now playing 2/4 and some 3/6, so the competition is harder. I've also recently come off a 100k+ hand downswing/break even period, so my confidence isn't where it should be. Anyways this will be an ongoing blog about my poker ups and downs as well as my life ups and downs. Should be interesting. Enjoy!

Here is the link to my previous blog.

http://jbunner.spaces.live.com

Here's June so far, i'm hoping to get to $10k. Wish me luck.