Reality Setting In? Winner's Tilt? Something's Just Not Right.

The most likely answer, of course, is that I'm playing like booty. I made gold, which is nice, and haven't been stretching myself. Been playing 4-6 tables and feel like I'm staying on top of it just fine. But...after my first 4k hands I was at 21ptbb/100, and now, after 13k hands I'm at 2.5. This...is ugly.

I'm regularly stacking off with top pair, paying off flopped sets, et cetera. I think part of it is frustration/chasing...like my overpair's GOT to be good this time. And some of it is just running normal and not expecting it after the ungodly start.

Good news:

• Made gold easy, and will do the same next month.
  
• My goals for next month seem realistic (20k hands, 5ptbb/100).
  
• I've been using PT3, by myself and in chat with littlebu, to try to figure some things out.
  
• We did week one of HH swap, and we're doing it again this week, with scottwire.

Bad news:

• It could be that things will get worse.
  
• My rate is much lower for the month than I had hoped.
  
• I've LOST money over the last 11k hands (and i only have 13.5k total).

Read more!

Help Me Jeeeeebus

Got a bit reamed last night, for five buyins. Was fine, no major tilt, just...got killed.

Made adjustments per littlebu's advice, but I don't think that was the issue at all.

Quick summary of adjustments: basically opening more with broadway/Ax type hands on the button/co, and a bit more raising against a single limper with similar hands/ position.

Overall for 10k hands : 23/16
Yesterday (1k hands: 25/20

Overall on the button: 27/20
Yesterday on the button: 35/29

Overall in the co: 25/21
Yesterday in the co: 28/25

Win rates (not that these mean anything over 1k hands)
Overall: .16ptbb/hand on the button and .20 in the co
Yesterday: .25 on the button (w00t) and -.25 in the co (oops).

None of this is what made me get killed yesterday though. Here are the big hands. It might get ugly, so make sure you're sitting down.



On this hand I don't mind laying down preflop. In fact I often will, and this is the exact situation I mentioned to littlebu might be a leak for him. There's no way we lay down the flop...but then laying down the turn seems a must. Playing it this way was just booty though, and is a classic situation (for me) where I call the river just because. I got myself there and feel i need to go all the way.

This against a tight regular. Whatever...maybe I should have raised again preflop, I dunno.


This is the kind of hand that just comes with the territory. I love the action, of course, but hate to lose it.


Board: 6h 8d 9d
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 50.572% 50.28% 00.30% 454 2.67 { KcKh }
Hand 1: 26.098% 10.96% 15.13% 99 136.67 { 8h7h }
Hand 2: 23.330% 08.19% 15.13% 74 136.67 { 7d7s }

It went on and on, and...finally, this is my most favoritist of all b/c of how sad it is.



Overall, 1k hands, -25ptbb/100. Gotta go, baby crying. Peace.
Read more!

Wife Swapping, urm HH Swapping With Littlebu

Was up early this morning with the baby and worked on bu's HH. Coincidentally, he shipped me his notes while I was working. Cliff notes: he thinks I don't steal enough, I think he 3bets too much, and we agree I suffer from a bit of fancy play syndrome.

I wasn't sure how I felt about him berating me for not stealing on the button/co enough, until I looked at my PT. I play tighter UTG, of course, but end up raising just about the same %. I think this indicates that the extra hand I'm playing on the button are mostly cold calls. This has to be bad...and today I'm going to experiment a bit with raising more often there with hands like A7, QT et cetera.

I referred him to the 2p2 micronl sticky to read up on threebetting. Essentially he's reraising hands that seem to be ahead of the raiser's range, but in then getting himself in spots where he could be dominated. In fact he played a hand where he had AT, 3bet, flopped T hi and stacked off to QQ. I like 3betting a more polarized range to avoid domination and to help the postflop play (56s will play better post flop than AT, imo).

More later...will break 10k hands today and, if I'm lucky, 1k profit as well. Read more!

A Generic Update

Getting near 10k hands for the month. I've only played 10 days and I'm at 9400 hands, 8.6ptbb/100. Obviously way down from the other day, but still above my goal for August.

I went to two plus two to read up on 3betting ranges, b/c I started noticing how often I was getting 3bet, and was a bit confused by it. Sticky threads are a must b/c the content in microlimit is booty. Found good stuff and have been playing with it. What I found really helped me, with my 3betting and understanding my foes'.

Swapped hands with littlebu and have to find time to work on that. Should be fun, and I'm excited to see what he has for me. I'm on pace to make gold this month and want to make sure I get there...figured out that I've been getting about 300 base points per 1000 hands of play, and with 3 days left of the month and 900 points back, I should just make it. Also, I figured out how to get some money onto p* so I can get the 40% bonus.

Excited about how things are going, although it's been rocky. It's funny, I played 2500 hands today and tilted nearly none, but when I played the CT MMN QTOC tonight and was crippled when a guy 4 bet a Queen on 3rd street in stud hi/lo I nearly lost my mind. Then I went to play the LNPT, got it in 3 ways with middle set v TPTK and a flush draw (the flush draw called all in after 2 AI's in front of him, and of course got there. THAT made me quit playing for the night...losing $16.50 in tournaments.

Glad I've switched over...maybe I'll just stop playing tournaments altogether. Read more!

An Okay Day, and Can I handle the Swings?

Had sort of a mini-day, with the family home and my failed attempt to go see Dark Knight (maybe next time I should bring my wallet?). 600 hands 8ptbb/100.

So I did fine, and my # for the month is still hovering around 9ptbb/100 despite the bad day yesterday. The thing is that I'm still kinda crushed from my "big" downswing. It's funny, despite understanding the variance involved, despite playing 100s of thousands of hands since starting play online, whenever I make serious efforts to build bankroll I get emotionally involved when I have even minor up and down swings. Every time I have a huge week I start dreaming about hiring an au pair and playing full time. Every time I have a day like yesterday I start thinking about moving back down and being careful, making sure I have enough to keep playing .1/.25 et cetera.

I had to work really hard my first couple years playing to control my emotions at the table (not get upset about specific hands, not get involved with strategy discussions with the fish, et cetera), but it seems in a meta-sense I'm not fully there yet. I obviously shouldn't be getting upset about dropping a few buyins in a day. I'm hoping that meeting my August goals will help. 20k in a month will be my biggest month in terms of hands played that I'll have in my 4+ years playing. The fact is that pure volume is what helped me control myself as much as I do now, and I'm hoping that the numbing aspect of 1k hands a day for a month will do the same for the fluctuations of the roll.

After all, I've had years of the adrenaline rush...what I want now is the monies... Read more!

My First Actual Bad Day

Yeah, 5.5 buyins. Let's just say I ended it by getting one-outed for stacks. More after the jump. Hands I lost chunks with: fives full of jacks loses to sixes full of fives (-$50). KQ raises preflop, check-raises a 799 board, shoves the J turn and is called down by Q7 (-$37). JJ < AA when villain never bets and get it in on the turn (-$33). Set of fours < flush draw (-$30). Set of fours turns into straight on board (oops he has the nuts)(-$15).

Then the grand daddy. Here it is in all its glory. Notice the super tricky check/call check/minraise the turn line that he took. How ever could I suspect he was fittin' to make quads?


So yeah, that sucked. Today was bad, and I do believe that I tilted off some of it (the KQ bluff was just dumb...the villain was like 80vpip and would never lay down a pair, and i get too ambitious 3betting and calling 3bets).

With this session, my numbers for the month look like this: 5300 hands, 8.44ptbb/100. sigh... Read more!

Back on Track?

700 hands, 17ptbb/100. That's the good news, the bad news is I lost some pots that didn't have to be as big as they were, and it's possible I'm trying to be a little to tricky. Lost a huge pot with 83s when my flush didn't get there and I had to fold to a tiny value bet on the river. Lost another huge one with KQs v AA when I turned the flush draw and went mental. Couldn't get away from AJ on a j53 board when three bet, et cetera. Eh, the good news is still good, though, I guess. But the last couple days have been a bit patchy. Stay tuned. Read more!

Resolution #3: Be Serious About Working On My Game

For the first time in my life, barring my first week of online play, I feel like I really have a chance to start growing my roll. Considering the amount of time I goof off, I think it's time I invest in being serious about getting better and preparing to move up again in a few months if things go well here. With that in mind, I'm going to do something that's out of character: I'm going to set some goals. Here they are:

1. Get/do coaching
   
2. Consider cardrunners
   
3. August: 20k hands at 5ptbb/100
   
4. September: take shots at .5/$1 6max
   
5. 2+2?

Now, one at a time:
1) Get/do coaching
Last night at 4am, while feeding the baby, I listened to the new episode of "Cash Plays". In it, Bart Hanson reminded me of the value of doing coaching. He sweated a friend for a couple of hours at Commerce as he played a 5/10 nl game and took notes. He talked through a couple of hands he felt the guy botched and Bart talked about how valuable it was for him to articulate some of these ideas. And it reminded me of how much I enjoyed doing sng coaching for chiptalkers.

So this goal has already sorta been ticked off the list. Today Littlebu and I are swapping 200 hands to do some hand history work and help each other out. It's not like either of us are pros or anything, but we respect each other's games and I hope the discussion helps us both.

In addition, I've been in contact with TMJ2k in the past about possible coaching, and I'm going to give more thought into that, although the guy seems swamped with baseball/poker.

2) Consider Cardrunners
I've always considered it too expensive to be realistic, but then again I never made much online either. If my goals for August are resonable (more on that in goal 3), then it becomes a relatively minor investment. The video training model is one that I think is great, I've watched some of their videos before and think it could really help. Also, it'd be an investment that could continue to help me if I'm fortunate enough to keep moving up.

Subgoal: talk to CT'ers I trust about which training sites they use, why, and how valuable their experiences have been.

3) August: 20k hands at 5ptbb/100
This month, I played 5 days so far (newly up, plus visitors in town), at an average of 700 hands per day. At 700 per day, I can do 20k in 29 days. More realistic imo would be to play a little longer at a time and do something like 900 hands per playing day and 22 days. Included in this estimate is the fact that we'll have family in town for 5 days next month.

As far as win rate, I'm currently at 18ptbb/100. If I can't do 5ptbb/100 next month then I need to start to seriously ramp down my expectations, which is fine. But if I do meet that goal...

3) September: take shots at .5/$1 6max
If next month goes well, I'll have 30 buyins at p* for .5/1, and with that I'll give it a go. I'll be fairly confident that I can use .25/.50 as a builder if things go well, and give it a shot. I'm not sure how much I should be willing to lose before moving down, but I guess it's something like 7-8 buyins.

4) 2+2?
I seriously have my doubts, b/c the microstakes forum tends to have like 100 threads a day, each with like 2 responses. That said, there is so much content there that I'm bound to find some good stuff. I'll wade in...I suppose...and find the good stuff through stickies, references, et cetera.






Read more!

My First Non-good Day at .25/.50

Eh...hard to say it's a bad day when you lose a 1/2 buyin, but it's the first day I didn't kill it and...well sometimes you just think you're gonna win every day. Some hands of note:
I don't know what the heck happened here, except that it's a super easy fold on the river. Also, I present this hand b/c these two jokers played two more big pots with me, which you'll see in a minute.


I really really regretted this pot. Villain is 20/17/4, so basically a really tough player at this limit. I don't mind the river bluff (perfect card), but don't know why I made it so small. Basically he'd fold air but be happy to call that number with the hand he had. I guess I tried to make it looks scary, but with one pair he was happy enough to showdown there.


Back to this Corazon fellow. He played 60 hands at 87vpip (!) 26pfr 3agg. He was on my left, but I wasn't too concerned with that b/c...well...he was playing any two. I'm not sure exactly why I flatcalled preflop, and don't know what I would have done if the 3rd man was interested on the flop, but as played it was a pretty easy calldown against this villain.


This guy firstsniper was also over 80%, which made me fine with this cbet. This is the kind of hand, I'm sure of it, that leads to the swings that I tend to take :/.


A minor cold deck, but I'm simply never folding to these two in this spot.


Another hand against the jokers, in which I'm happy to get it all in as a favorite (oops, only 44% :o).


In the afternoon I played another 300 hands, and lost a bit, but there's nothing of note...just missed too many flops, maybe cbet a bit much. Overall, I'm not worried about the doomswitch or anything, just a blah day. I continue to collect data on regulars, which is nice, and to sort out what works and what doesn't. I'm optimistic, and if things go well my online bankroll will hit a new high in the next week or so.

Read more!

More .25/.50 Glory

I'm telling you...the move up has resulted in more aggression with the same level of ineptitude. This means I'm getting paid more often and they're taking me to value-town less (b/c they're less scared I'll fold when they flop big). After the jump you'll see me win a 200bb hand.

The QJ played it horribly, obviously, and the T8 got unlucky. But at .1/.25 I'm sure that QJ would have just called the 3 bet on the flop and would often fold, scared, on the turn.

Played 1000 hands today, at 32bb/100 woo.
Randomness:
Worst hand that turned a profit today: 53o, had it 15 times and earned 45 cents with it. Also, won a $20 pot when i c/r'd the turn and bet the river with 63 on a 978KA rainbow board.

Best hand that failed me: AK (suited or not), 12 times for a loss of $15, including a weird hand that was minraised to me. I wanted to make it just $2 to tickle it and get 2 or 3 handed, but made it $20. He called and fired $20 at a baby flop. We both had $70 behind, and I just laid it down.

Up to 21bb/100 for my time at .25/.50 Read more!

CT nightly: run well, play okay, then play horribly

Was feeling good coming off of last night's win and my 6max success. Some new guys, who tend not to have been punished as yet for their overly loose play. So I'd like to play really tight. I make tptk twice in the first orbit and build it to 1955, allowing me to sit tight all the way to forty minutes in. This hand came up at 25/50, and littlebu...there's no other way to put it...pwns me.


I'm so dumb for not betting the turn, I get so dreamy about the chance of him having AQ or something, and let him off the hook. I like my bet on the river, but he just didn't have anything. He told me later he took a long hard think considering a shove on the river. No such luck.

So I have 2200, and position on FSU, which is good, but the field is still mine-filled, and I'm going to do my best not to piss off my stack again. I'm basically completely refraining from blind steals b/c I'm not happy about the guys in my blinds. I get a bit of a scare when i 3bet a button raise with KK and the flop comes A-hi, but my small c-bet takes it down. I get it up to 3k by making hands and getting very little action, but FSU is up to 5k and I know there'll be some hands played against him, b/c the action runs through Jeff when he's got chips.

Whataboutj bets the flop, I call and make the nuts on the turn and he gives me no action, making me wonder if these guys can see my cards tonight. The way my cards have gone, I think I should have at least 4k now.

Speaking of which, this hand amused me. I planned to stop and go against the button raise, but the flop came A-hi. We checked it all the way down and I received a gift pot.


J busts 4th and the bubble is burst.
Stacks:
FSU - 7360
imalooper - 3445
jojobinks - 2695

In addition to fsu playing a really strong lag game, imalooper has come out of his 14/9 self and has started 3betting. I feel things will have to go well for me to get some chips here. And boy do they go well.

I get it all in preflop when I 4bet TT v imalooper and he shows me TT. 4 spades come and boom, I've got 6k and a chiplead. I steal my ass off and get it up to 8600. Then resolution #2 fails me once again. WTF is wrong with me?

Some things to consider...FSU occasionally will limp with a monster. I think he uses this especially often against me, b/c he's been so successful trapping me over the years. I think I eventually called b/c of the fact that the pot was limped. I just couldn't believe he'd think I had an ace here. Here 'tis.


I got all wishful thinking there. God, just hate it. Aaaaaaarghhghgh.

Nevertheless, I still have 5300, and imalooper is stuck at 1600 at 100/200 so I'm good to get headup with fsu. Right? RIGHT? No. J4 > AQ and looper doubles up. Then I get a little greedy v FSU.

I don't think it's really the worst hand I played tonight (for that, see the A5 hand), but if I had thought it out better I'd have realized even this small 3bet commits me, as it offers me a hair better than 2:1. If he's playing tighter than I think, it looks like this:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 33.788% 33.47% 00.32% 39540085 379707.00 { JhTh }
Hand 1: 66.212% 65.89% 00.32% 77849477 379707.00 { 99+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ }

And at least some of the time he's got to just have lost his mind with some worse hands.

Anyhow, it may have been preferable to just lay low and pick off looper. Instead, it took me seven hands to go from 64% chips in play three-handed to broke and out in third. The funny thing is that that's not especially like me, and the blinds were small. I had 40bb, for god's sake! I think I get somewhat historically tilted in these situations. I remember all the hands I've played with FSU over 3 years and just feel like I've got to get him this time. For more on this see the hands I played with chicagosox at muckleshoot last weekend.

Eh...later.


Read more!

Small Victories = Valuable Ego Boosts

Won the CT nightly for a massive $20 takedown. They play relatively tight-passive, and my goal is normally to run them over if possible. If that doesn't work, I know I can fold/shove better than most of the guys, and so I do fine with a shortstack.

Here's how it went: I splashed around as usual, but there's a new guy that's firing on every street, and I lose several small pots to get down to 1100. Then, no surprise, I make the same move I made against Matty earlier in the night. This time I get a bit lucky and double up. I feel less bad about this one, though, b/c the stack sizes had me committed and b/c the villain is much less solid than Matty.


Now I'm chip leader, and I really really like having a biggish stack. I win a pot on the flop with 44, steal the blinds with KQ, raise AT to a minraise plus 3bet, and sigh of relief as the flop comes down ten hi and the 3better makes a massive overshove.

I try to steal with A7 and laydown to a 3bet from a relatively loose new player. Then this pot, which I won but probably played badly.

Given that littlebu is a very strong sng player, and that we have butted heads more times than I can count in the last few months, here's what I think: 'Bu regularly stays out of my way, and I stay out of his. But we both know that the other abuses the scared players, and will sometimes take advantage of position. The fact that 'bu called on the button indicates maybe he'll try to take it away on the flop. Also, there was a hand a while back where he raised me on the flop when I hit an ace, he raised, I threebet and he folded, saying he was representing the ace.

Sure looks the same here. of course he could have 57, but i seriously doubt he'd want to play that hand against me. He could have diamonds, but not very often. And he could have AK, but I'm 79.4% sure he'd of 3bet me preflop with it. So he most likely has a smaller ace or a pair, including the set possibilities.

In other words, I probably have him crushed, in which case he'll fold to a 3bet, or he has a set/AK, in which case a 3bet is pointless. So what do I do? I shove and he folds. God I suck.

I hated this hand and file it under "playing in the blinds is booty"


Maybe I should have bet the flop, but the two to my left are erratic, and Seitz on the button is dangerous. If any of them call I'd have to check fold most turns. So I check call and he very casually bets the Ace like it ain't no thing. Oh well.

My stack is still comfortable, but now we're only a few hands out from 25/50, where the 1k stacks will start feeling heat.

I steal the blinds with 88. I time out (downloading music from ITunes doh!) and miss out AK in the blind. Littlebu had raised, and claims to have had AQ, which I guess would have gotten him broke to my shove.

We get to 25/50 and my cards get a little gross here. I 3bet a shorty with AQ and win the race against KQ. Up to 3200. The next hand I laydown AJ to a single raise from Hoffa (b/c I can't tell what the heck he's ever doing). Next hand I pick up AQ again, and 3bet seitz's open, picking up 225 in chips. Up to 3470. The next hand I get AA, and get good news as mastrbluffer and Seitz misunderestimate my massive girth.




I'm up to 4600, double the next biggest stack, who I have position on, and we're 5 handed. 3 spots pay, and osumike and hoffa are the two most likely to be worried about the bubble. On the other hand, littlebu is the one most likely (besides me) to exploit the bubble.

I steal the blinds 4 out of the next 8 pots, and hope that either a) I'm starting to put the tight players into a shell, waiting for a monster to make a stand, or b) that someone loses it and shoves A5 when I have AK. I slow down a bit, but still steal 4 of the next 11 pots preflop. Littlebu 3bets me from the blinds when I raise the hammer for the glory-show, and I reluctantly lay down.

Then resolution #2 fails me again.

In my defense, it sure looks like a pretty good flop for me. And it's a little bit unlike 'bu to make the smoothcall there. I'd guess he almost never has a 9 in his hand, and I guess I hoped he had AQ/AJ/KQ/22-44/66. Now I'm a little bit fucked with 50/100 blinds and 2300 chips. Bu will abuse, and I think erox and hoffa will play too many hands, which will make it difficult for me to maneuver.

I fold for 2 rounds...no cards and hoping to make sure they don't think I'm just steam-raising. In the meantime, erox busts and we reach the bubble. I steal with T8s, "steal" with AK, steal with QT. Bu has 4600 and the other three of us are all clustered around 2500. I think osumike will play too tight, and am not sure about hoffa, but I think he overvalues Ax hands, which is a little scary for me.

This fairly simple hand goes down, and I start to change my mind about hoffa.


He claims to have KQ, which makes the fold really easy of course. But he wonders aloud whether he should have played it at all. This makes me think he's more worried about the bubble than I thought. I take note, and look for chances to help him laydown before the money.

Hoffa minraises and I shove AK, picking up 450. I call Hoffa's raise in the BB with A9s and then shove a K84r flop, folding him out and picking up 600. I take the blinds the next two hands straight with AQ, and now I have 3400. Bu has 5400, and the two others are 2300 (osu) and 1k (hoffa).

I raise to 400 with AK and hoffa shoves his last 1200 with KT, which of course doubles him up. I'm unhappy with the result, but really happy that he's responding to my pressure by shoving such a weak hand. Now I'm shorty with 2k, at 75/150. I threebet shove 88 v osu and pick up 600. 'Bu gives me a bit of a gift by just flatcalling (instead of shoving) on this pot:


And now I'm sort of out of the woods. With 4200 chips, I feel like I'm a huge favorite to make the money with a good stack. Osu cripples hoffa in a race, and now there are three of us with 3500+ and one with 700. This hand comes up, which I found interesting:



With hoffa so short, I KNOW osu will fold nearly everything, and know that 'bu knows he should fold just about everything. But 'bu is a good thinking opponent, and may see this as an easy opportunity to pick up chips, since he knows I know he should fold almost everything. I fold, but am not completely happy about it. I would have had a pretty hard time with AQo/88 there, and am not sure what my calling range should be.

Hoffa gets it in bad again, calling off his last 550 with bottom pair v osu, and the bubble breaks.

Stacks:
me - 3860
osu - 4455
'bu - 3685

blinds are at 75/150.

Not much happens for a couple of orbits, and then I take and win a flip against 'bu with AT v 55. I'm h/u with osu. jojo: 7800, osu: 4200.

Headup lasts 6 hands woo. I 3bet on hand one with KT and he lays down. On hand two osu somehow lays down a king on a board of 54K5 rainbow when i raise the turn with 52. Three hands in a row go without a flop, and then I win a race with JJ v AQ. Thank you and good night. Read more!

Good Start to the .25/.50 project

I was somewhat scurred about moving up, as throughout the years I've often dabbled higher and gotten crushed. Not at all shockingly, though, the play is really similar to .1/.25. There are still lots of rocks, but maybe more bad players than usual. There's still not much 3betting, but the button/co raising seems more automatic, and restealing is very possible. I find the play more predictable, and think I'm getting floated a lot less often.

In short, in my small sample thus far (damn family visit last week), I've made the crush. Also, I'm closing in nicely on my silver star, and hope to get in a whole mess of hands this week and clear it easily.

I feel like the last few weeks have been the smoothest sailing I've had on pokerstars. Playing cash weekly in Seattle (in a very tough home game) and the studying I've done in the last few months has made the difference, methinks. I'll put up some hands when I get the chance. Read more!

Update on Resolution #2: FAIL

Monday night PLO/PLH CT tourny. Chipped up early with good cards, then busted someone w/set over set in PLO. Had 3700 and by far the chip lead going into the final table. Sat tight for two or three levels, then I...yeah, I did that thing again. Here 'tis.

Read more!

More on Taking Shots: My First 2 Sessions at 3/5 Live

With brother-in-law chicagosox planning to come into town for the week, I promised him we'd find a game. Unfortunately, he was coming in Friday-Monday, and the only regular games I have around here are on Thursday nights. So I agree we'll play at the casino.
The thing is, I'm severely under-rolled to play 3/5 (the smallest NL game at Muck), and the closest 1/2 game is at Tulalip, which is like 2 hours north. So I form a half-ass plan for us to get to Tulalip, but when it comes down to it, I just don't want to make the drive. So we decide to play at Muck on Saturday night, 7/19.

They max buyin is $300. This isn't so bad, b/c if I'm gonna play over my roll playing it short is fine. I might get outplayed with deep stacks, but I'm not all that worried about that if i'm only 60bb deep.

Chicagosox gets seated at one table and me at another. Right away I'm comfortable, b/c this game plays timid/weak. There are regularly several limpers, and only 2 players at the table are raising, ever. Postflop play is slow/tight, and the pot is often checked down or taken down with a small bet on the turn.

I play tight for a bit, chip up with a few small pots, and then move to the other table on Chicagosox's immediate left (woo). As i sit down, he bets $130 into a $200 pot with ATT7 on board and is pretty quickly called by a guy with only $40 behind. The river comes blankish, the shortie says "eh, you might as well get it all" and puts his last $40 into $460. Chicagosox calls, the shorty shows A3 and Chicagosox mucks. Um...ok. So he didn't get the memo about not playing unnecessarily large pots against donkeys.

A few hands in, bro-in-law limps utg and i make it $25 with AQo. He calls and the BB calls. board AT4 with two diamonds (i don't have a diamond). He bets $40, I'm nervous to raise with the BB left to act after checking (this is my first big pot at 3/5, grrrrrr) and I just call. BB calls too. The turn comes an offsuit 6, and we all check. The pot is $200. The river comes an the deuce of diamonds to bring the flush. BB checks, CS bets $75, and I call, hating it. He shows A6 of diamonds, having made two pair on the turn and the nut on the river. So I play passively on the flop and let him catch up. That said, would he really fold to a raise on the flop with tpbk and 9 outs to the nuts? I'm not sure, but what I'm really upset about is the river call. I don't think he's particularly excited about beating me in a big pot, and i lose to a flush, AK, AT, other random two pairs plus the ghey straight out there. I'm a bit of a station on the river, and need to figure out how to fix that.

I chop away with a bunch of boring hands and get up to $425. I play an obscenely stupid hand, again against Chicagosox, in which he was good preflop and a huge favorite on the flop, and I call off most of my chips. My stack is down to $75 and I top off to $300. I'm not posting details about this hand any more specifically, b/c I might have to commit suicide if I think about it any more.

I fail to do anything too stupid from there and end up "only" down $250 for my first session.

We go back last night, I win a high hand at 3/6 limit while waiting for my seat and pull $250 for it. Woohoo even steven. Again i play TAG, avoid blowing up, and net $100 for the night.

Hand of interest that I wasn't involved in:
UTG, who I've pegged as a guy that's played live a lot and learned just enough to get himself murdered against good players, is contemplating his action, when UTG+1 (tightish old guy) raises to $15. I'm in the BB, to UTG's right (duh), and I see him get all excited about the out of turn raise. He says "did he raise?" Dealer corrects old guy and says it's UTG's action. so UTG just limps (I wonder what's coming?????), old guy makes his raise, there are two callers, and UTG makes it $50. All three players call. The pot is $200 and the flop comes AK5 rainbow. UTG looks up at the lights in exasperation, sighs deeply, and dismissively waves his hand as he checks. Okay, so his hand is like 90% QQ and 10% JJ/TT. It checks around. The turn is a 4, UTG makes his big showy check again, and the rest check. The river is another stupid blank, with no flush possible, and he does the show again. It folds to the guy in last position, talky asian guy. He says "so no one wants to bet, huh?" Old guy says "we're waiting for you to bet it", and asian guy makes it $100. UTG starts sighing some more, shows me QQ (LDO), and folds. The other two fold and asian guy shows 6 high. UTG starts blabbing about how he folded a MONSTER. A MONSTER, I tells ya!

One more, The last I put chips in before having to leave. Douchey sunglass guy, who plays 50% of the hands, but who has been laying down a lot on the flop, opens to $25. There's one caller, and I'm in the sb with AKo. In retrospect I don't hate the flatcall, which leaves me with about $325 in a pot of $75. If it comes good I only have SPR of 4, which means we go ahead and get it in if someone likes. But I decided douchey didn't have much, the caller didn't seem particularly threatening, and so I make it $100. They both fold, douchey with much pomp and circumstance.

He asks if I had a pair, and I claim to have AA, "of course." He says he folded JJ, and it looks like it was the most painful thing he's ever done in his life. I have about one round to go before I leave, and he's staring at me the whole time, hoping I'm gonna fess up to having J2. I don't of course.

Summary: Two nights, 8 hours play, up $100, for about 1.2 bb/hour :(. If we discount the high hand (as any reasonably person would), I'm down $150 in that time. I think the game is really weak, and if I don't play the two big hands against chicagosox I end up with a good rate for the two nights. All this said, I don't have enough to take significant losses in this game, and will have to be very careful not to bring too much money and tilt off 3 or 4 buyins. Read more!

Resolution #2: Fold Occasionally After Putting Chips in the Pot

Chiptalk Thursday night. i play super tight for the first hour (can you say minefield?), and end with 2000 chips. by 8pm i'm up to nearly 6k and we merge for the final table, after starting with 28. Some highlights of the stack accumulation: theft, baby. i just looked over it, and from the first break to 8pm i showed down 0 hands and got up to 3k. then, i raised 2.5x with 99 and got minraised by a loose/passive. so i made it 500 (100/200) and he made it 800. i shoved for 2900 and he called with 66. this got me to 5200.

i got some hands after that and chipped up some, to the final table with 7k and 2nd in chips. bad news is that the chip leaders were all behind me. worse news is that i'm a total dumbass and forget to fold.

whataboutj has been playing a lot of pots and has won 3 of the last 5. he also has me covered in this hand...so one might think i'd have the sense to lay down at some point. here it is, in all its glory.



well, we know i played on, right? and what's the point, really? i mean i can fold here and have 5k, which is enough to play with and puts me in the middle of the pack. as i was waiting to act i told myself as much. i mean J isn't a nutjob. he COULD have QT or diamonds, but is it really likely? could he really have QJ or TT? um...no, he couldn't.

so i shove, and he has KJ, and i'm drawing something like dead. and hey! i just played a massive pot against one of the few players that have me covered, and i had a shitty hand! woooooooooo1!!!!111...

no wonder why i don't FT this things anymore. Read more!

Resolution #1: No more chasing vpp status at p*

In looking over my PT stuff in the last few days, Hachkc at chiptalk helped me realize how dumb i am. although i'm a small winner for 2008 (see my last post), i actually am in the red in cash games b/c of the 5k hands or so that i've played shortstacking 1/2. at the end of months where i don't play much i'll be somewhere short of the 1500 points i need to keep my silver star at p*, and i'll spend a night or two playing 1/2 with a $45 stack to get the points needed for my star. i get the star, but often drop a couple buyins in the process.

woohoo! result: i get 1.5 fpps for the following month. bad news...they aren't worth jack. in almost 4 years playing at p*, the sum result of my fpps are: one hoodie, one ipod nano, and one bose sound dock. sounds pretty good until you realize that i've been paying rake at p* for FOUR YEARS.

i'm saving up again, and hope to one day cash them in for something sweet (xbox, 160g ipod...), but it behooves me to get my status the old fashioned way, by playing stakes i can beat. this is also part of my move to .25/.5, where vpps are a bit easier to come buy and the end of the month chase won't be as big a deal.

coming soon, resolution #2. excited? Read more!

Poker is Hard

The above is my chart for my normal stakes over the calendar year of 2008. The first question one might ask is WTF???

After that, one notices a few things.
1) one wouldn't necessarily call me a "big" winner. in fact, i'm barely a winner at all.
2) dude, look at those swings. in sum...up 325bb, then down to -80, then up to 465, then down to -115, then up to 80, then down to -150, then up to 500 and down to -150 and finally, now, up to 850. is this the sign that i can beat these games, or that i'm currently running good in a EV neutral rollercoaster?

Um...I don't know. My answer is to move up and see how it goes. more on why i'm moving up later. Read more!

Started playing .25/.50 6max today

Hoping it'd get my juices flowing, maybe make a bit, maybe lose some and motivate myself to work on the game.

some big hands that came up. villain 47/24, had been waiting on him for some time.

here's a hand i'd play different against nearly anyone, but this guy was a 74 vpip, and i was able to get it in...but i wasn't all that happy about it.


a hand i lost that irked me. kinda hated myself for just calling the turn. don't mind the river raise...his 3 bet is ugly and my hand hit the muck rather quickly.


anyhow, had a good first day, with 800+ hands and a good 23ptbb/100 win. Read more!

the late night poker tour 7/14 (new month woo)

First hand of interest. This was interesting to me b/c i played whataboutj deep in one of these last week. he minraised AK, i flopped trips with some trash hand and busted him, and he was a bit steamed. here he comes with the 3bet min, and with a pretty junky hand too. easy fold on the flop based on what i know about him.

Next hand...being OOP sucks. turns out i coulda made a bet on the turn, but i was hoping to have them lead. anyhow, i get value on the river (almost inexplicably).


urk, this hand. i'm 91% certain that vrecksler called me out of the blind with some dumb 56 type hand. we chatted about it, i think he let the cat out of the bag too suddenly there. either lead the flop or let me bet the turn, imo.


two hands after hoffa flops the nutter and busts a guy, we play this hand. i really hate the way he played it...he's guaranteed to make the absolute least, and if i hadn't of caught that stupid turn card he'd have made zero extra against me after the flop.


down to 400 and sorta waiting around to shove now.

maybe a dumb hand here, but i did have enough that i think he'd fold AJ, small pairs, et cetera. and i did get a small thrill on the flop. also, if he folds i show and weeeeee!


night one of the new month goes poorly. Read more!

Woo new blog. MMN HOE tournament.

CT monday night: had a roller coaster ride. HOE, limit holdem, o8 and stud8. decided to try to get some chips early, b/c imo people play limit hold 'em really bad.

so first this hand, which was pretty ugly on the river but mostly just scottwire being a god tournament player (and the wrong guy to mess with earlier in the hand). Full Tilt Poker, Limit Hold'em Tournament, 20/40 Stakes, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


buddy4bass (SB): 1,250

abby99 (BB): 1,520

cdnmoose_8 (UTG): 1,370

scottwire (UTG+1): 1,790

Technoguru (MP): 1,460

PhilTheThrill14 (CO): 1,610

jojo-donkey (BTN): 1,500

Pre-Flop: (30) Q 9 dealt to jojo-donkey (BTN)

cdnmoose_8 folds, scottwire raises to 40, 2 folds, jojo-donkey raises to 60, 2 folds, scottwire calls 20

Flop: (150) 5 K T (2 Players)

scottwire checks, jojo-donkey bets 20, scottwire raises to 40, jojo-donkey raises to 60, scottwire calls 20

Turn: (270) 5 (2 Players)

scottwire checks, jojo-donkey checks

River: (270) A (2 Players)

scottwire checks, jojo-donkey bets 40, scottwire calls 40

Results: 350 Pot
scottwire showed Q K (two pair, Kings and Fives) and WON 350 (+190 NET)
jojo-donkey showed Q 9 (a pair of Fives) and LOST (-160 NET)







i like the way i played it, although the pot was mos def too big on the river for him to fold. i think the 3bet on the flop is fine, although def longballish. he's gonna fold a lot of hands there.

anyhow, a couple hands later, this:
Full Tilt Poker, Limit Hold'em Tournament, 20/40 Stakes, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


buddy4bass (UTG+1): 1,240

abby99 (MP): 1,640

cdnmoose_8 (CO): 1,370

scottwire (BTN): 1,910

Technoguru (SB): 1,440

PhilTheThrill14 (BB): 1,610

jojo-donkey (UTG): 1,290

Pre-Flop: (30) A 8 dealt to jojo-donkey (UTG)
jojo-donkey raises to 40, 2 folds, cdnmoose_8 calls 40, 3 folds

Flop: (110) T Q T (2 Players)

jojo-donkey checks, cdnmoose_8 bets 20, jojo-donkey raises to 40, cdnmoose_8 calls 20

Turn: (190) K (2 Players)

jojo-donkey checks, cdnmoose_8 bets 40, jojo-donkey raises to 80, cdnmoose_8 calls 40

River: (350) 4 (2 Players)

jojo-donkey checks, cdnmoose_8 bets 40, jojo-donkey calls 40

Results: 430 Pot
cdnmoose_8 showed T Q (a full house, Tens full of Queens) and WON 430 (+230 NET)
jojo-donkey mucked A 8 A 8 (a pair of Tens) and LOST (-200 NET)







so then the chirping starts, like i'm some sort of big donk. first off, the guy flatcalled QT and flopped the nuts. fine. the cold call is really bad, though. he just called my raise on the flop, fine. but then he fails to three bet the turn, which is awful. as if he's gonna get my stack by playing super tricky.

so then it's all..."matt, you feeling alright tonight?" "um, i dunno about the utg raise with A8" yadda yadda yadda.

so i it tight, b/c like i said, i think for the most part they play bad.

then, the funny thing is...i sorta cripple myself in an early o8 hand. i flop the nut straight and we cap the flop. the board pairs on the turn and i call down like a donk. of course they both had boats. good thing they don't like to raise, b/c i still have 600 chips left.

i win a small pot in stud8 and get up to 800.

then cdnmoose calls calls calls calls folds to chip me up:
Hand #7225562151

Tournament - 7 Card Stud High-Low (40/80), Ante 7, Bring-In 10



buddy4bass      (Seat 1): 964

abby99          (Seat 2): 1,734

cdnmoose_8      (Seat 3): 2,464

scottwire       (Seat 4): 1,778

Technoguru      (Seat 5): 1,048

PhilTheThrill14 (Seat 6): 1,792

mwfeldman       (Seat 7): 720



3rd Street - (1.23 SB)



buddy4bass:      xx xx 6___folds

abby99:          xx xx K___calls

cdnmoose_8:      xx xx 3___calls

scottwire:       xx xx 3___folds

Technoguru:      xx xx 3___brings-in___folds

PhilTheThrill14: xx xx 4___folds

mwfeldman:      2 A 7___completes



4th Street - (4.48 SB)



abby99:          xx xx K Q___bets___calls

cdnmoose_8:      xx xx 3 5___calls___calls

mwfeldman:      2 A 7 6___raises



5th Street - (5.24 BB)



abby99:          xx xx K Q Q___checks

cdnmoose_8:      xx xx 3 5 2___checks

mwfeldman:      2 A 7 6 T___checks



6th Street - (5.24 BB)



abby99:          xx xx K Q Q A___bets___calls

cdnmoose_8:      xx xx 3 5 2 K___calls___calls

mwfeldman:      2 A 7 6 T 5___raises



River - (11.24 BB)



abby99:          xx xx K Q Q A xx___checks___calls

cdnmoose_8:      xx xx 3 5 2 K xx___checks___folds

mwfeldman:      2 A 7 6 T 5 4___bets



Total pot: (13.24 BB - 1,059)



Results:Seat 2: abby99 showed [Ks Jd Kh Qh Qc Ah 8s] and won (530) with HI: two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 3: cdnmoose_8 folded on 7th St.
Seat 4: scottwire folded on 3rd St.
Seat 5: Technoguru folded on 3rd St.
Seat 6: PhilTheThrill14 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 7: mwfeldman showed [Ac 4s 7d 6d Td 5c 2s] and won (529) with HI: Ace Ten high; LO: 6,5,4,2,A




Total pot 1,059 | Rake 0



Note: this site shuffles the hole cards.







he corrects that mistake by call call calling me down with just a pair of aces in 08. and now i'm back to 1155 chips woo!


soon thereafter, cdnmoose does me the favor of calling my 3-bet with 235Q, and i take down a pot with Ace hi. woohoo...and he thinks my utg raise with A8 was bad.



buddy4bass calls down with one pair in o8 to further chip me up


this is why i have no doubt i'm going to be able to last in this tournament...

i chip up to 2400 in a series of uneventful hands.

then this extraordinary grossness, in which i start with Ac 5h 4c 6c in stud8, raise 4th, and two opponents charge me exactly ONE more bet to draw my last 2 cards. i need a 2, 3, 7, or 8. oh yeah, and i missed, and am now down to 800.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7226408255: CT MMN #11 (54863597), Table 2 - 150/300 Ante 25 - Limit Stud H/L - 23:01:17 ET - 2008/07/14
Seat 2: Tosh (884)
Seat 3: cdnmoose_8 (4,094)
Seat 5: john_now (1,411)
Seat 6: PhilTheThrill14 (3,581)
Seat 7: mwfeldman (1,872)
Seat 8: w16227 (7,658)
Tosh antes 25
cdnmoose_8 antes 25
john_now antes 25
PhilTheThrill14 antes 25
mwfeldman antes 25
w16227 antes 25
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to Tosh [Kh]
Dealt to cdnmoose_8 [9h]
Dealt to john_now [Jc]
Dealt to PhilTheThrill14 [6h]
Dealt to mwfeldman [Ac 5h] [4c]
Dealt to w16227 [5s]
mwfeldman is low with [4c]
mwfeldman brings in for 50
w16227 completes it to 150
Tosh folds
cdnmoose_8 raises to 300
john_now folds
PhilTheThrill14 folds
mwfeldman raises to 450
w16227 calls 300
cdnmoose_8 calls 150
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to cdnmoose_8 [9h] [8h]
Dealt to mwfeldman [Ac 5h 4c] [6c]
Dealt to w16227 [5s] [8s]
cdnmoose_8 bets 150
mwfeldman raises to 300
w16227 calls 300
cdnmoose_8 calls 150
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to cdnmoose_8 [9h 8h] [9s]
Dealt to mwfeldman [Ac 5h 4c 6c] [Kd]
Dealt to w16227 [5s 8s] [4s]
cdnmoose_8 checks
mwfeldman checks
w16227 bets 300
cdnmoose_8 calls 300
mwfeldman calls 300
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to cdnmoose_8 [9h 8h 9s] [Th]
Dealt to mwfeldman [Ac 5h 4c 6c Kd] [5c]
Dealt to w16227 [5s 8s 4s] [8d]
cdnmoose_8 has 15 seconds left to act
cdnmoose_8 checks
mwfeldman checks
w16227 checks
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to mwfeldman [Ac 5h 4c 6c Kd 5c] [6s]
cdnmoose_8 checks
mwfeldman checks
w16227 checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
w16227 shows [Ts 7d 5s 8s 4s 8d 3c] a pair of Eights, for high and 8,7,5,4,3, for low
cdnmoose_8 shows [Qs 9d 9h 8h 9s Th 2h] three of a kind, Nines, for high
mwfeldman mucks
cdnmoose_8 wins the high pot (1,650) with three of a kind, Nines
w16227 wins the low pot (1,650) with 8,7,5,4,3
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,300 | Rake 0
Seat 2: Tosh folded on 3rd St.
Seat 3: cdnmoose_8 showed [Qs 9d 9h 8h 9s Th 2h] and won (1,650) with HI: three of a kind, Nines
Seat 5: john_now folded on 3rd St.
Seat 6: PhilTheThrill14 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 7: mwfeldman mucked [Ac 6s 4c 6c Kd 5c 5h] - HI: two pair, Sixes and Fives
Seat 8: w16227 showed [Ts 7d 5s 8s 4s 8d 3c] and won (1,650) with HI: a pair of Eights; LO: 8,7,5,4,3

i hold on to finish 4th (woo bubble!), and bust with QT v KQ in holdem.


Read more!