tales of microdonkery

Bad Beat / Good Beat / Dumb Beat. My Night

2009-01-08T00:04:00.000-08:00

Drove up to UW85's for the monthly tournament. btw, it takes me 70 minutes to get there, and tonight was worse b/c of the torrential rain. that's cool b/c i play goot and normally make deep runs at it.

tonight i started out in the BB with 52k stack and 100/200 blinds. nothing big happens in the first round. then this happens the second time i'm in the bb. blinds are 200/400. i have about 49k and the villain has me well covered. he's loose/passive and tends to trap with a monster. btw, last month, after a minraise to 1000 and a jojo shove to 11k, the villain snap called on the button with QJs. so that's what i'm dealing with.

6handed, there are 4 limpers to me in the bb. i have Ah10c which is plenty good enough, and i plan to raise it. there's 1600 in the pot and i'm liable to be in bad position, so i make it 3k. i get called by loose villain in the co.

flop comes 8h 9h Jh. the pot is 7200. my hand is golden here, especially if i can get it in soon. i raise 4k, which i hope may look weak and induce a raise. last month i saw him flat call raises with 2 pair more than once, and figure him to only raise with hands like AJ, QQ, or maybe a set.

he raises to 12k. i have 'bout 41k behind and so i'm happy. this is basically teh perfect spot to get it in with some fold equity and a million outs.

he thinks for maybe 30 seconds and calls with QTo. i brick off and good night.

anyhow, whatever, it's not a bad beat (that's for the bad beat cops you know you're out there). but it's a cooooold one, b/c there's simply no way i do anything but shove there, and he has the worst possible hand for me. i'm 42% against top set, 55% against AJ, 53% against QQ, and blurg 35% against this hand.

so i'm insta-out, i get on the highway and it's the great flood on the highway. when i go over 55 my car threatens to hydroplane, so i'm kinda steaming and plotting my next move. a slight detour takes me to snoqualmie and the new card room there. i have $475 in me pocket (plan ahead yo!) to play the 300 buyin 2/5 game.

i come in utg +2 (b/c you don't need to post as a new player) and fold my way around to the button. there are 3 limpers to me and i limp with 5h 7h. flop comes 6h 4h 3c omg and w00t. better still the first guy to act (stack right at 300 with me) who has played 3/4 hands so far bets 20. a short stack with 100 calls. i make it $55 b/c i'm sneaky like that (omg the smaller raise is more likely to get action!). first to act shoves for $300 and i'm like omg. short stack puts in his hundred and i have my chips in like super fast yo.

first to act says "someone's got a draw and it aint me" which i don't like much when the board pairs. i ask if he's got a set and he shakes his head like i'm crazy. so booyah no flush comes (short stack shows ace-rag of hearts) and i rake the $650 pot.

Finally, my dumb beat. i literally fold every hand for an hour, then make it 20 to go utg with QQ. button calls. flop comes QQ5 with two hearts. i say to my self "self...w00t." but i keep it inside b/c i'm tricky like that. i check and call $30. maybe i shoulda just bet, but what can i get him to call with on more than one street? i dont' know this guy and prefer to see if i can get him to spazz off. btw, he's shortish with about $200. so the pot is $100 and effective stack is now 150.

turn is the :6h bringing the flush. again, now, i have to figure out how to get his stack. he obv doesn't have a Q. one pair hands no longer pay me off, i guess, with the scare card out there. he could have a boat which would be nice or the flush which would prolly stack off at this point. but most likely he has nothing much. i check again he bets $30 again which of course is superpolarizing. i think now he can't have anything but a flopped underboat or nothing at all. so what do i do? i raise him to $75 like a tard and he folds.

now, as if that wasn't dumb enough, i muck it. also, there's an hourly high hand payout of $200, only 3 tables are running and so quads are golden.

w/e in any event i cash out up $400, am over my uw85 tournytilt (sorta, till now when i think about it), and mosie on home. to type.

werd. also, i'm putting this on my blog b/c GD it why else have a freakin' blog?

WTF Am I Doing? New Years 09

2009-01-05T12:12:00.001-08:00

I played a ton over the summer, had a rough September (bah didn't even lose much), and kinda gave up for a bit. I was much less able than i thought to grind hands at home with the baby (duh?), and didn't end up with the numbers I was after.

The result, I guess, has been a virtual retirement for October and November. I started playing again a bit in December, came up a couple days short of Silver status, and now need to figure out what i'm going to do. When last I made goals (Sept), they included 25k hands and 2ptbb/100. I'm going to seriously scale back and see what I can do this month.

So, yeah...that's something. It'll get me playing, in any event.
Goals for Jan:
NL 6max cash
15k hands
Silver status
1ptbb/100

Tournaments
3 days of at least a few big field online tournies (one down already a couple days ago) with ROI > 0.

Yes, starting small. But, that's something, eh?

Farewell to Bankroll, and Political Gambling

2008-11-06T07:12:00.000-08:00

So, there are times when bankroll management is a strength of mine (risk aversion, compartmentalization), and there are times like this month. I guess it started when the new ipod touch was rolled out. I had recently earned enough FPPs to purchase it via onecall.com gift certificates, but they never got them in stock. It's been nearly two months and they still don't. Eventually I think I may have lost my mind, and decided to pay cash for a 32g. I withdrew some money from p*, and reasoned that I'd just eventually do a cash bonus to make up for the $400.

Then I decided I'd take a shot at 3/5 at muckleshoot. And 2 hours later, my roll was down another $600 woo. I got a little unlucky ($300 flip, and then KK < AA), but mostly it's just what happens when you're underolled, okay. So I'm down $1000. Then I bought Guitar Hero World Tour ($200) b/c wifey was out of town for a week and I was a bit miserable. Down $1200.

My downturn could have gotten much worse when I took a pretty strong position on Obama winning the election. I ended up laying $600 to $200 across several bets. Of course I loved the price I was laying...by the week before he had to have been 10:1 or better, but obviously losing the $600 would have been much worse than winning the $200 would have been good. link to wiki article on utility

A couple of minor upticks along the way: I won the chiptalk QTOC, had small wins at 4/8 limit and online 50nl, cashed last night in the weekly CT. But in general I'm down, and may need to hunker back down at p*.

Anyhow, here's my update, which was apparently a requirement to get paid for the Obama bet by a certain Washington CT'er. Peace.

Yeah, that's right, I'm not posting.

2008-10-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

You know why? B/c I'm a bitch and last month sucked. I'll post stats later, but I finished down a few buyins. Nothing catastrophic, but yeah it sucked.

Issues:
1) timing.
Seamus started kindergarten, so I stopped playing so much in the afternoon when the family is home (they were pissed at me about it), and started working on getting in all my hands noon-3 or so. These hours are packed at P*, but they suck. I mean...they suck. Usually 2 platinum grinders at every good table I find, and of course they have as many hands on me as I do on them, and blah blah blah. I long for the days of playing in the evening, but I'm gonna have to figure out how to start playing those hours again.

2) variance (?)
Who fuckin' knows? All I know is that I played 18k hands and had something like 6 swings of 7 buyins or more last month. I mean...really?

3) the fuckin economy
I'm discouraged about my chances to get in more than a year of real volume. With the way things have turned, we're seriously concerned about our prospects for a really good refinance deal in 2 years with only one income. Chances are I'll be teaching again in the fall, which means my days of even 10k+ hands/month will be over. Which turns what I'm doing now back into dabbling, fucking around. sigh...

Also, J-fuckin-M and my headup match, of course, got down to a shovefest in the 5th match of five. Of course I'm bitching now, and of course it's prolly an exaggeration, but he basically did what I figured he'd do, which is to call down in most big pots with any piece of the board. With a minute to go, I brick out the river, have 1300 behind, JM has 1000 behind, and there's 700 in the pot. I decide to bluff it so that I can run him over at 50/100, knowing there's a really good chance he'll call with a single pair on a scary'ish board. So yeah, he calls, I'm handcuffed with the big blinds, game over. blurg. I'll see if I can find some hands later.

Phil Hellmuth, Village Idiot

2008-10-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

thanks to dangerlion

Chiptalk HU Tourny

2008-10-01T17:35:00.001-07:00

16 player field, run over the course of a few weeks, with matches scheduled on our own. The great news about this is that we can set them up at our discretion. In other words, we can play 2 out of 3, 3/5, 4/7, whatever floats our respective boats.

I played scottwire in my first match and beat him 2/3. Last night JM and I played 4 of our best of 5. He crushed me in the first, I had him down 2:1 in the second until A7s < 78s aipf. He went up 2-0, and I had to work hard to get even at the end of the night.

The rubber match is tonight at 9pm local. I'd like to comment and put up some hands, but I'm too paranoid about potential foes reading up. I'll do that after I take it down.

PS: Our quadrant of the draw was scottwire, JM, mrticsay and me. No offense to the rest of the field, but these are possibly the strongest 4 players of the 16, and I've already filed an official complaint to the appropriate regulatory body.

Why Do I Run So Good?

2008-09-29T09:29:00.001-07:00

http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Poker Stars Game#20789010612

fragio007 ($16.60)
winniwy ($12.10)
jayboy16 ($13.95)
Talon2000 ($12.30)
GJBRADLEY ($47.10)
thejojobinks ($51)

fragio007 posts (SB) $0.25
winniwy posts (BB) $0.50

Dealt to thejojobinks Jc Js
call, fold,
GJBRADLEY raises to $2
thejojobinks raises to $7.50
fold, fold, fold, call,

FLOP ($16.25) 6h 4c Jd
check,
thejojobinks bets $6.85
GJBRADLEY raises to $39.60
thejojobinks calls $32.75

TURN ($95.45) 6h 4c Jd 2c

RIVER ($95.45) 6h 4c Jd 2c Tc

GJBRADLEY shows Ac 7c
(Flop 5.9%, Turn 15.9%)

thejojobinks shows Jc Js
(Flop 94.1%, Turn 84.1%)

GJBRADLEY wins $92.45

The New Ipod Touch: or, Come On, Onecall!

2008-09-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

Two things happened last week. One, I got past the 24k fpps, which is what I need for $400 in onecall gift certificates. And two, the new touch was rolled out, which is 32gigs for $399.

So...Onecall...WTF????!

They still don't have it in stock, and although they claim they do customer service right or some such nonsense, in chat they claim they have "no idea" when it'll be in.

Um...why am I torturing myself at the grind, if not to get cool gadgetry? We're going to DC in October and I best have meself a touch by then, or there will be repercussions. Oh yes, there will.

Late Night Poker Tour: Quarterly Tournament of Champions

2008-09-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

Worst QTOC ever, b/c basically entries are based on performance over 3 months but there are only about 6 or 7 regulars, so as a regular it'd be embarassing to not make it.

That said, I rarely play tournaments anymore, and I won last night, so...you take your victories as they come.

It was an FTP 2-stacked thing, and since the field tends to be loose/bluffy early, well, I did what I always did and blew off a buncha chips right away.

I call this first hand "hey there's a really good player on the button. let's pump up the pot so he can take it away from me."

I got 3bet by the tightest living human and layed down AJ, and nowI'm down to 2500 and nit up. My image is horrible with those that aren't solid (about half of them) to begin with, and now it looks like I'm playing maniacally. So I wait.

P.S.: Woo for waiting! Although given the board, I'm not sure how Seitz gets away here, unless he checks the turn which is probably 74% too nitty for words.

Yay, I'm riiiiich. Oh wait, there was this hand. I hate the way it went down, but I wonder, given the weird flop action, if there was any way out for me.

Now I'm back to 2300 and self-flagellation. I know that against whataboutj, tdog, lucky, and hoffa I'm likely to have to play for stacks if we play a pot. littlebu and fsu88 are solid but will play back at me. And osumike will sometimes allow himself to be bullied. So I'm going to work on his blinds, and in the meantime try not to get out of line.

I forget about not getting out of line a bit later. In this hand, there were so many limps I wanted to raise just on principle, but didn't. Anyhow, on the flop hoffa put out that ridiculous probe bet, which I noticed he does quite a bit. And, having thought about raising preflop, the dry flop, et cetera, I figured it might be a good time to take it down. It was.

I hate this hand, b/c villain is 26/10 and has folded to 3bets 2/11 times in the 800 or so hands I have on him. So I know he's not raising with 22, I think he's not raising with AT, and I KNOW he's calling with every single hand that beats me. But I'm just so inclined to be aggressive that I make these dumb shoves. I hate it, it's a horrible move, and I got super-donk-lucky.

On the other hand, there's this hand. Lucky is a similar player to tdog...he limps a lot, raises little, and gets spewy later in hands. This looked to me like the classic limp in with a little sumthin sumthin and then reraise b/c what the hell might as well. I may have had a hard time with TT, but I don't think so...and this was a pretty easy fistpump snapcall.

Now I'm at 6600 and I can play.
Stacks:
Seat 1: littlebu ( $5935.00 USD ) <-- to be feared. we have a lot of history, and he's a strong player
Seat 2: FSU88 ( $3546.00 USD ) <-- to be feared. similar to littlebu, but in addition i'm not sure the stt is his strength, which is even more scary. he does weird stuff and I'd prefer to not get involved.
Seat 4: mwfeldman ( $6659.00 USD )
Seat 5: osumike11379 ( $1350.00 USD ) <-- will play very solid. target for abuse.
Seat 8: whataboutj ( $6640.00 USD ) <-- likes to defend his blinds, slowplays maybe a bit too much, otherwise pretty tight. very reluctant to open pots.
Seat 9: Hoffa13 ( $2870.00 USD ) <-- pretty aggro/weird. not sure what's up with him, even though i have a lot of hands with him. too lazy to look up numbers now, but last night was the same. i have most my hands with him at p*, and HEM isn't good at combining usernames from diff sites. So I didn't have his #s up from p*. At FTP, in limited action, he's 33/24/9 (!).

In all, I like my seat a lot, with the two most dangerous players on my right and the very tightest player on my left.

This hand is weird, b/c...well obviously. I check behind the flop b/c I don't think he has any outs. His call on the turn, I think, mostly has to do with my flop check. I feel like he's value betting a nine or 66-88 type hand on the river. I was pretty sure he wouldn't call, but I feel like there was some chance he would, and there was pretty much 0% chance he had me beat.

I double up osumike with J4s (wooooo!), and chop away at the blinds for awhile. Here's osumike's hand, btw. I want to put it up b/c I think it's a pretty big mistake on his part.

Seat 1: littlebu ( $3995.00 USD )
Seat 2: FSU88 ( $3386.00 USD )
Seat 4: mwfeldman ( $9319.00 USD )
Seat 5: osumike11379 ( $1110.00 USD )
Seat 8: whataboutj ( $6400.00 USD )
Seat 9: Hoffa13 ( $2790.00 USD )
osumike11379 posts small blind [$80.00 USD].
whataboutj posts big blind [$160.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to mwfeldman [ 4s Js ]
Hoffa13 folds
littlebu folds
FSU88 folds
mwfeldman raises [$430.00 USD]
osumike11379 raises [$1030.00 USD]
whataboutj folds
mwfeldman calls [$680.00 USD]
osumike11379 shows [4d, Ad ]
mwfeldman shows [4s, Js ]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 5d, Jd ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
osumike11379 wins $2380.00 USD from main pot

Mike only has 1030, my raise is to 430, so he knows I'm not folding. Let's say he gives me 30% on my button raise. Then...
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 48.028% 44.85% 03.18% 1108882084 78652760.00 { A4s }
Hand 1: 51.972% 48.79% 03.18% 1206379372 78652760.00 { 55+, A2s+, K5s+, Q7s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, A7o+, A5o, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o }

Yeah, that's right...he's a dog. Why guarantee a race in which you have no edge? BTW, if he gives me 40%, then he's 50.5% woooooooo...

So basically it's a really bad play to reshove with a bad ace hi if you can't get the guy to fold. He tells me in chat he thought I was making a move, et cetera. I bide my time.

Then I make the crush.

I bust hoffa with JJ > QK aipf, and we're 3 handed, blinds 120/240 and a 50ante.
Seat 1: littlebu ( $11107.00 USD )
Seat 4: mwfeldman ( $10927.00 USD )
Seat 8: whataboutj ( $4966.00 USD )

I consider this to be far from an optimal situation. whataboutj gets sik aggressive shorthanded, and littlebu is the player I feared most at the table since hand one. And whatabout j may be short, but at 20bbs is still plenty deep enough to play back and get me to lay down. My plan is to pick up AA v KK like 3 times. Also, it's to be aggressive as always, lay down when necessary, and have them make bigger mistakes than me. If I nit up they'll know it and run me over. If I play my game, they'll sometimes get a little too wrapped up in the joy of getting me to fold. That said, I'd still like AA v KK.

The first hand of note: god-bless-america that I started playing cash games. I think I'm like 66.4% more creative now, and I basically would never 3bet in the past. Not that this hand is particularly creative, but still...

So 3handed I open then fold 3 times, which means (maybe) that I'm getting played back at, which is a good thing according to my plan. Since I know they're not gonna let me run them over, I want them ramping up aggression and making big mistakes. But then this hand comes up, and I think it's my mistake. My shove offers him 2:1, so unless I think he's pretty far out of line, I'm taking a race. And, of course, it'll cripple me to lose the pot. Which I do.

Down to m<3, I just log out and let myself blind out.

Yeah, no. Not really.
I get a walk the very next hand (?). I fold k2 in the sb, shove rags on the button and pick up another set of blinds. I fold my bb, then steal the button and sb and get another walk. Alrighty then! I've doubled up, and whataboutj can spew. Can I sneak into h/u play? Yes sir, yes I can. I see what happened there, but I think J was missing some key points. Mostly...it wouldn't really hurt bu to double him up, but it hurts J a lot to go bust here. The board is pretty scary, his hand is of moderate strength, and I'm really short. I think it's a pretty easy fold (for a slightly tough fold, that is). I think J's pot sized bet is the real problem. It made him feel trapped. Not necessary, imo. 1000 does the trick, I guess, and makes it easier to fold.

In any event, woo h/u!!!
Seat 1: littlebu ( $24643.00 USD )
Seat 4: mwfeldman ( $2357.00 USD )

Two double ups would be nice. If only I could pick up aces on my first hand. If only...
***** Hand History for Game 8174760892 *****
$30000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, September 22, 12:49:48 ET 2008
Table Chiptalk LNPT (61893922) Table 1 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: littlebu ( $24643.00 USD )
Seat 4: mwfeldman ( $2357.00 USD )
littlebu posts small blind [$150.00 USD].
mwfeldman posts big blind [$300.00 USD].
littlebu posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
mwfeldman posts ante of [$25.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to mwfeldman [ Ac As ]
littlebu raises [$24468.00 USD]
mwfeldman calls [$2032.00 USD]
littlebu shows [Td, Ks ]
mwfeldman shows [Ac, As ]
littlebu wins $22286.00 USD
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, 7d, 3h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
mwfeldman wins $4714.00 USD from main pot

w00t. We go back and forth for 20 hands or so with small pots and flop takedowns, and on HEM it looks like I'm running him over but I've only grinded up to 5400. Flopping 2 pair is always nice. I'm happy with the way I played it, and I'd like to have not shown my hand down but there's no way he folds a better hand if I raise the river and I don't think he calls with much of anything worse. The board cooperated and I was able to check two streets, otherwise I don't think I make an additional chip on this pot.

New stacks:
Seat 1: littlebu ( $10622.00 USD )
Seat 4: mwfeldman ( $16378.00 USD )

We go back and forth, with smallish pots, I flop one pot huge, he donks and then folds (drats), and then we finish it off with a good old-fashioned cooler.

This is a pleasing result for me. Then, today, I resumed the torture of 50nl. We're taking a 4 day trip to DC in November, followed by 5 days in Chicago, so my streak of big volume months will likely be over. It kinda looks to me that it won't be a moment too soon.

Some "Valuable" Information From a Poker "Professional"

2008-09-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

This guy is using words that I understand, but isn't saying anything that I can then interpret to have meaning. How does a guy like this get money to play? Seriously, he plays all the 10k tournaments. WTF? Just watch.

Last Night, WSOPME

2008-09-17T10:54:00.001-07:00

Only watched the first episode, but this was my favorite hand. I wonder why?

I Run Bad, Carry On

2008-09-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've got 10.8k hands for the month, which looks like I'll fall short of 25k, but it's certainly not out of reach, depending on how things go. The last two months I did significant volume the last 10 days or so, and I tend to get mmore hands in when I run well. When exactly will that happen?

My allin EV for the month is +$150 (which is a bad enough 1.5ptbb/100), but my results are worse, at -$26 for the month. Some examples of how I get to this point.

From today:

Ah yes, a mere 95.5% equity when the money get in.

Here's another from my favorite fish of all (anonymized to protect my monies):

This one is also close to my heart:

For balance, here's my biggest suckout of the month. (Going to look now...not sure what it'll be. I sure hope it's a big one to cheer me up)...oh yes. Yes it is.

Take that you donkey! That'll learn you for playing QQ. It is just top set, you know.

Some Wicked Hands From the WSOPME

2008-09-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

The coverage is great this year, despite the two mongoloids doing "commentary" and "analysis." But there were some awesome hands on Tuesday night's shows, and here are some.

Some guy lays down (correctly) with a monster. I don't know whether to agree with Matusow (he's unlucky to draw players like this in such a weak field) or disagree (dude, you have a guy at your table that's slowplaying a set of jacks and then laying down after filling up).

Ivey bluffs out top two and a set. Again, the board is scary and stuff, but again we have a player slowplaying a set and then laying down when things get worse. How badly do these guys want to make the money?

Ivey shows disdain for the mere mortal who fearfully calls with, basically, the nut. This one is really interesting, as someone who also gets testy with the n00bs. He realized a few seconds after snapping that the guy is just, sorta, hopelessly scared/stupid, and calms down. The "we just see things different ways" is a smooth insult, and deserves appreciation.

Also, of course, he doesn't have THE nut and could be coolered here, but how weak/scared do you have to be to respond that way with J8 in that spot?

Recent Tournament Stuff

2008-09-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

Finished 3rd at uw85's tournament on the 4th. 3 handed i'm in the bb, blinds 8/15k with an ante and i have 120k. I'm covered by both villains. Button limps, SB completes and I check my option with K7o. Flop comes KT4 rainbow. SB checks, i bet 45k into 48k and the button calls. Turn is a 6 to complete the rainbow. I move in for my last 60k and he calls nearly without hesitation with AT. Wheee, river ace.

I'm down, but I catch the points leader for the year, and October is the final month. I'm now up 10 points. The thing is, you get 10 for a final table, and his tournament is often like 15 players. The guy right behind me is a real tight fuck, so there's a lot of pressure on me now to FT. Uw85 uses a weird non-weighted system, 100/80/60/40/20/10s for the rest of the FT. So...you see. If he finishes 6-9 and I don't FT we tie for the year. If we both FT i need to keep him close and if he finishes 4th or better and ahead of me I'd be dead.

Took down the CT Thursday tonight for the 8th time, tying poker god fsu88. Here are some hands that mattered...

In my first hand of any consequence, I 3bet a guy I've never seen before but is shaping up to be the table captain lagtard. I lay down here but I'm looking for opportunities against this guy.

Next hand of consequence, shockingly, against the same player. He limp/calls and I think there's zero chance he has an ace or a big hand there. He donks the flop and this seemed like an easy shove to me. Also, I may have been feeling slightly tilty. But I'd bet $100 he had 55(ish).

This is another example of the fairly retarded lagtard stuff he's doing. I remember at this point to be looking for stacking opportunities against him, not chances to steal small pots.

It's hard to imagine, but I basically play no pots of consequence until 50/100. I raise 44 and cbet scottwire, which is always scary b/c he loves to CR the flop. I pick up blinds with QQ and 3bet JJ v my archnemesis but get no action.

My first big pot comes at 75/150. It's against...yes, kalhan. I 3bet AQ, shove it b/c it's about right and I don't want him getting any ideas about me laying down. Winning races is nice.

That hand put me in the chip lead with 18 to go. There were some medium stacks and some players that I knew wouldn't reraise light, so I got to work on stealing blinds. I pick up the blinds 4 of the next 11 hands unopposed, including a QQ that left me sad and unsatisfied.

I dropped 1k when i opened 66 and matty minraised allin with QQ. It looks like I sat really tight for a few rounds after that, prolly b/c of the awkward stack sizes. I can't open small enough to be able to fold to a shove by a shorty at that point, and they're all shorties.

My next big hand is here, v joserijo. He's a pretty good lag. He plays 50nl and is really aggressive. He's been stealing liberally, and I shove here b/c my stack is at that point. He INSTAcalls with that hand, which tilted me in anticipation of a bad flop. Hand holds up, big chipleader now with two tables.

This hand is a big blurg, but I think is basically necessary at this point in the tournament.

So I'm getting exactly 2:1. I stoved it against broadway, aces and pairs and figured I had 35%. I call, he shows A8 and I brick out.

Speaking of chronic check-raisers...I think Raiderjoe might be the worst. I swear this guy has CR'd me on the flop several hundred times. I feel 100% sure I dodged one here, and it pleased me. In other times I would have ALWAYS bet the gutshot on the flop.

I bust joserijo with QQ > Q7 aipf. Flopped a set but had to sweat a flush draw on the turn. Was happy to see him gone b/c I prefer weak-tights a the table, not lags.

FT now. I bust some guy with AJ > KJ aipf w00t.

Chiptstacks and evaluation of the situation:
Seat 1: thejojobinks ( $13758.00 USD ) <-- animal
Seat 3: vrecksler ( $7393.00 USD ) <-- fundamentally sound. maybe too patient. glad to have him behind me, i think he's a bit scared of me.
Seat 4: mattythatguy ( $1989.00 USD ) <-- can spew, but mostly tight.
Seat 5: RaiderJoe40 ( $2085.00 USD ) <-- very tight, tricky after flop (won't matter unless he gets some chips though)
Seat 6: julesdAA ( $8325.00 USD ) <-- unknown
Seat 7: scottwire ( $5346.00 USD ) <-- very good player, will shovebot well.
Seat 8: cdnmoose07 ( $12104.00 USD ) <-- he plays pretty tight, but find him to be a bit of a spewer. we play regularly on monday nights and i see him do some crazy stuff. he also steals like crazy and i'm happy to be behind him.

Some more hands:
Jules gets crippled and i bust him aipf KT > A3. I double up raiderjoe (drats) with a dominated ace aipf.

From 6handed to 4 handed my stack goes from 12k to 18.5k without seeing a flop. Not getting great hands, but I have the chips and they're waiting on big hands, I guess. Cdnmoose makes a huge mistake whatever he had here...I think this is just horrible.

Eh, the replay doesn't do it justice, but he's getting like 3:1, and half his stack's in the pot. He claimed he had 3 outs, which I guess means he had A9 or something. But seriously? He leaves himself 5k at 400/800, which I find really silly. The good news (for him) is that he starts shoving like a maniac and no one wants to play with him. He doubles up without a flop, and then busts raiderjoe with a small ace aipf v joes Kx.

Stacks and situation:
Seat 1: thejojobinks ( $25320.00 USD )
Seat 3: vrecksler ( $13386.00 USD )
Seat 8: cdnmoose07 ( $12294.00 USD )

So vrecksler will be looking for good opportunities, but will undervalue steal opportunites and bad broadway hands to open. cdnmoose won't have that sort of hesitancy, and will apply pressure. It's my job to steal from vreck and not let cdnmoose run over me.

No action with AK, KQs. Vreck doubles up through moose with AK > A5 aipf, and moose is down to 3k.

The very next hand I double him up to 6k with Ax v 33 and he's off to the races again. Is this getting long now?

I make another raise/call with Q9, and again lose a 40/60 to cdnmoose. Now stacks:
Seat 1: thejojobinks ( $14746.00 USD )
Seat 3: vrecksler ( $20272.00 USD )
Seat 8: cdnmoose07 ( $15982.00 USD )
blinds 400/800

Gonna speed it up now, b/c i'm tired as shit.

Vrecksler busted with this hand and was really disappointed, but come on. Moose makes a ridiculously spewy shove for 20+bbs with a bad ace and sucks out. Vrecksler got it in silly good, and that's just how it goes.

HU went 11 hands. He started with a 2:1 chiplead and I'm proud to say I lost exactly 0 chips but for my blinds in the match.

lol not true now that I actually look at the HH. This hand nearly blew my head off. I really thought he was pretty strong, and I obviously was gonna lose at showdown if I checked, but could I really shove this river? He takes a big pot and I'm in trouble, nearly down 4:1

These are the last two hands. Of course I flop it sik hard but he makes another redonkulous spew with king hi, then we race off for the rest. I win my 8th woo.

Seitz's Hammer Hand

2008-09-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

This sicko is headup for a wcoop event and bluffs a hammer just for the CT'ers. You can't see it in the replay below, but he showed the hand for the rail. w00t.

Here it is:

Not Much to Report

2008-09-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Still playing every day. The wife and baby are out of town and the kid is off to kindergarten for 3 hours a day, but I'm not really seeing an increase in volume. I thought I'd be able to, but really I'm still cranking out about 1k per day. I'm having some wicked swings, and am working again on being less spewy with medium-strength hands.

Results have been blah, I haven't been studying much with DC vids. I Have to maybe figure out how to regiment things a bit better.

w00t seitz! 46k score.

2008-09-09T08:57:00.001-07:00

Good friend and former team member seitz333 takes down 46k and second place in the wcoop 8 game, a tournament structure he's played exactly once before.

read about it here.

He's been playing the bigger tournaments for close to a year, I guess and this is big time, imo. Congrats and stay away from our microtournaments, bitch!

Urm...okay

2008-09-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

Niiiice...

First, I induce a giant spew from a nitty regular.
No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

Button ($50.75)

SB ($54.45)

BB ($70.25)

Hero (UTG) ($63.75)

MP ($58.90)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, K

Hero raises $2, MP calls $2, 1 fold, SB calls $1.75, BB raises $13.25, Hero raises $33.50, 2 folds, BB raises $56.50 (All-In), Hero calls $28.25 (All-In)

Flop: ($131.50) 2, 5, A (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($131.50) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($131.50) 4 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $131.50

Results in white below:

BB had Q, A (two pair, Aces and fives).

Hero didn't show K, K (two pair, Kings and fives).

Outcome: BB won $136

This one was a barrel of fun:
No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

Button ($90.55)

SB ($26.40)

BB ($50)

Hero (UTG) ($49.25)

MP ($99.25)

CO ($50)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, K

Hero raises $2, 2 folds, Button calls $2, 2 folds

Flop: ($4.75) 5, 3, 2 (2 players)

Hero bets $3.80, Button calls $3.80

Turn: ($12.35) 6 (2 players)

Hero bets $7.75, Button calls $7.75

River: ($27.85) A (2 players)

Hero bets $17.25, Button raises $77 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: $62.35

Results in white below:

Button didn't show

Outcome: Button won $119.10

To round off the big hands, we had kk < AA, JJ < AA, KK v flopped set and AA v 48 (dooooh, NOT 48!!!??!).

For the day: 704 hands, 21/20/6, -36ptbb/100 w00000000000000000t.

Tonight: the Bothell tournament. Confidence booster or soul crusher? More later.

Sorta an ugly day and AHK scripts make their first appearance

2008-09-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

Got in a good number of hands today, like 1500, but tilted for a good part of it and was lucky to get out only down 1.5 buyins. Lost 3 huge pots with a pair when an overcard came on the flop against lagtards. I really need to figure out what to do when I'm frustrated, b/c I only get so much opportunity to play and I really don't want to just walk away when I have the chance.

On the good news front, I found some really useful AHK scripts at 2+2 software that I started using. Betpot uses wheel click to bet pot (preflop, sometimes flop, sometimes river), and rightclick to bet 2/3 pot (more likely on the flop/turn). Also messed around with starsplanner, which places tables and autobuys in, and stars reload, which makes sure all the tables are topped off. Unfortunately, one of the latter two seems to turn away new tables when seats open, so I've laid off them for now. Finally, I started using theopener, which is set up to open p*, HEM, and betpot with a single click.

I'm pretty optimistic despite a rocky start to September. Even though I got in 20k hands last month, it was less than 40 hours, and I ended up averaging $25/hour. Theoretically, this means I can consider it a possibility that it might be realistic for me to make some real money this year.

Notice the use of theoretically, possibility and mightberealistic. I'm guardedly optimistic.

Folding When Beat: I did it!! (??)

2008-09-02T15:00:00.001-07:00

I think this is a good lay down but, as a payoff wizard, it pains me.

The guy is 16/12/4 over 50 hands. Small sample, but the line he takes is strong like bull, no? I just can't see calling there and then folding to a massive river bet if it bricks out.

Feedback, por favor.

I Love This Game!

2008-08-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

Played some more. Was just treading water, when I played this monstrosity. Don't even know what to think about it, except when the action goes like this I tend to be drawing just about this dead.

I was buzzing, and started to shut down tables. Then, in the next few minutes, these two hands happened.

I was sick when he called, of course, and dumbfounded when they pushed me the pot.

Then, finally, this:

99 lol. Also, the replay's not working, but the short stack had 67o w00t.

THEN I shut down the rest of my tables and ran for it. Good month. :D

End O' The Month

2008-08-31T14:23:00.000-07:00

Family out of town today, and I took the opportunity to play against the big Sunday crowd and finish the month strong. Had a great day, then flopped set under set, stacked off, felt the tilt buzz, and logged off (victory!).

Probable final numbers for the month (assuming I'm done for the day):
Total hands: 21324
ptbb/100: 3.4

But... I'm putting a big asterix on this result. Maybe I'm just rationalizing, but here goes. At the end of last month I had that nasty downturn, and I switched to .1/.25. Results remained bad into August. And I just couldn't win at .1/.25. On 8/24 I realized I needed to play .25/.5 if I wanted gold, and...I wanted gold, so I switched over to 50nl exclusively. Since then I've done great, winning 7.5ptbb/100. So, breaking it down for stakes...

25nl: 9362 hands, -.15bptbb/100
50nl: 11962 hands, 6.15ptbb/100

So, kinda, sorta, I met my goal of 5bb/100.

I met my goal of 20k hands. I met my goal of signing up for a training site. I haven't done any coaching, and me/bu/scottwire have shared hands only once. :(.

For next month:
[ ] 25k hands.
[ ] 6.5ptbb/100
[ ] Fold when beat. Specifically, when c/r'd by a nit with less than two pair.
[ ] Regulate DC viewing. Specifically, I'd like to watch after peak hours, at least 2 hours/week, at the computer. Been using the ipod, but it's more scattered, b/c I'll be all over the house. Also, on the ipod it's impossible to read hole cards.

In the end, I'd like to ramp up my play volume. Just crunching some #s, I figured I'm getting 321 hands an hour at 50nl, with mostly 4 tables but sometimes 5 and very occasionally 6 when transitioning. At that rate, I'll need to up my play from 15 hours/week to 20 hours/week to hit 25k hands this month. That seems really reasonable to me. And if my month goes as planned, I'll be a couple of weeks away from having 50 buyins to 100nl.

Stay tuned.

Ick, Bad Day

2008-08-26T16:40:00.000-07:00

Flopped a boat and guy rivered a bigger boat. Stacked off with tptk v a flop min check/raise (like duh). I turned a set against a turned straight. This and much much more. The good news, I think, is that even with those three hands, and one brain fart donk off of a bluff, I still finished only 1.5 buyins down in 900 hands.

And then there was this:

mmmm...it warms my heart looking at it.

Oh well. Didn't mind booking the loss, but I was a bit tilted and I wasn't at all happy about that.

Here's the set v straight hand. It's so gross, b/c it's one of two cards to which
I even put in one more chip.

Also, an update on yesterday, and my point about chumps refusing to bet their hands. yay for losing the minimum here.

Getting More Value

2008-08-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

I've been watching all sorts of stuff at DC, but one of only two series I've been watching in its entirety is Real Life Micro NL-Grinder: Unlimited Texas Hold Them, which is basically comprised of Wilt on Tilt doing sweat sessions and HH reviews with his student, a 50nl grinder. They've been great, and one of the concepts that's really basic that I've been working on is getting more value out of medium strength hands against calling stations. In the past I would check behind on the turn for deception or to keep from stacking off or whatever, but really I was just not getting value. And Wilt argues that, basically, you should keep betting until your straightforward opponent indicates that the situation has changed.

Amazingly (not really), it works. I mean, hands come up where goofballs slowplay AA and end up doubling through me, but much more often he's just calling down with something dumb b/c he doesn't believe me and he has tpbk or because he thinks he's slowplaying a worse hand.

In any case, this leads to situations where I'm just bet bet betting, even when semi-scare cards come later, and I'll have to occasionally bet fold assuming these guys aren't incredibly tricky. The fold part...I'm working on that.

The good news, and I've reported on this before at CT, is that a lot of the really bad players at these stakes can't bear the thought of losing a customer, and as a result will often play very slow and then make tiny value bets later in the hand when they flop a monster. The result is that I seem to be winning big pots and losing small ones.

Today: 900 hands. Hands in which I won 40+ bbs, 11. Hands in which I lost 40+ bbs, 3.

Had another great day (and hope to get in another session later during the CT Monday night tourny), +$289. w00t.

More on The Benefits of DC

2008-08-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Bought my subscription on 8/15, and since then have watched about 10 videos. I believe it's helped tremendously, and now I have some semi-anecdotal proof. Here's my chart since then. Notice the thin line is my allin EV (took a couple of aipf beats in this time). Even given the variance, though, I'm at 6ptbb/100 in this time, comfortably ahead of where I wanted to be for the month. Woo, I say.

By mwfeldman

New Update on August Goals and First Thoughts on September

2008-08-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

[x] 20k hands.

As of now I have 14.5k, not including tournaments blah blah blah. I've played 18 days of 6max, at 800 hands per day. I only need to average 611 hands per day to hit the number.

[?] 5ptbb/100

I'm at 4.25 for my last 7k hands, and moving up. For the month only 1.5 :(, but I could conceivably get there.

Now, September. What I think, for now.

[ ] 25k hands. Average 1k over approximately 25 days of play.
[ ] Bump my earn up by one ptbb/100. Realistically I hope to finish around 2.5 this month, so shoot for 3.5 next. This would earn me $875 and put me within sniffing distance of being realistically rolled for .5/1.

As Promised, Some Non-Bad-Beat Hands

2008-08-22T13:18:00.001-07:00

Holdem manager has a nice mark hand feature which allows hands to be marked for viewing later. Yesterday I played 2k+ hands and couldn't find anything interesting when I did a cursory view. It's easy to find big pots, but ones that were medium sized that seemed interesting in the moment are harder to locate. So here are some I marked recently.

In this hand I raise to isolate the fish on the button, adn get called by the other fish in the bb. He plays 67/8/4 in a small sample. On the flop and turn he makes baby bets, and I assume as a rule that from a bad player that means he has bottom or middle pair. If the board hadn't paired 6s on the river I'd have likely value bet. I wonder whether I'm a sucker for not betting the turn, in fact.

I feel like this one is a typical spew. In the bb the player is 63/13/1. She calls on the flop and I guess she has a queen. I was wrong and she was stronger...but still with those numbers I don't know why I should assume she'll even lay down a queen. Dumb river bet imo.

Finally this one, which I'm kinda proud of. Folds to me on the button. The blinds are both under 20%vpip in 150+ samples, and both fold BB 80% of the time. The table is tight and I'm bored so I go for the steal. The BB 3bets and yuck, b/c I have 24, you may notice. But I look a bit deeper and see that he's 3bet out of the blind a whopping 16% of the time. Not that I needed stove to tell me, but when I look now, I see that includes such hands as KTo, QJo, Q9s, A5s, 66. I think most of the time he has a relativelyl junky hand, and I know that Holdem manager has informed me that I 4bet too infrequently. So...

w00t.

Upward Trends and Optimistic Thoughts

2008-08-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

When things turned bad at the end of July, I lost 7 out of 8 days, for a total loss of $782 :X. After that, since 8/8, I've won 7/12 days (not spectacular, but not horrible), for a win of $307, woo! In the second stretch I played at 22/17/3, compared to 24/18/2.75 during the losing stretch. Hrm...maybe that's not all that different. But my vpip is down some, my vpip/pfr is up some, and my agg and 3betting is up some(6 to 6.8), and let's pretend that makes a diff.

More generally, I've been watching the videos and if nothing else getting my head right. I'm picking my spots a little better, reading hands a bit better, and I've tempered my agg in situations where it looks like my fold equity is minimal and I face aggression. Shit looking for hands. I'm gonna get better at marking hands for posting. Starting...now.

I took some nasty beats today, but now I'll post some happy hands.

In this first, I got my stack back from a donkey that got it in with tpnk v my Aces and rivered trips. mmmm...so sweet.

In the next I turn set over set, which proves there is a God. Nice slowplay, sir.

In this hand, I feel like I got an extra $10 or so with a river check-raise.

In this hand...yeah I cold decked him. And it was fun.

One final note...I think I'm gonna make 20k hands rather easily, in my dreams I come close to the 5ptbb/100 goal I set for the month. I'm at 13k hands and 0 ptbb/100 for now.

Also, I figured out that if I play ONLY 50nl for the remainder of the month I can squeak out gold status again. So...I'm going for it. I'm actually at .75/100 for 50nl, so I don't think this is a stretch or much of a risk.

Too Much Crying?

2008-08-20T10:38:00.001-07:00

I really don't want the blog to be a series of posts where I bitch about how I run, but the fact is I've had bad results. Of course I'm working on it, and don't intend to slow down. Since my mid August update I've picked up the pace and have a decent shot to get in 20k hands this month. And, in reality...I'm at worst break-even over the 5 weeks I've been playing a lot. I feel like Deuces Cracked and Holdem Manager were good investments, and in all I'd say things are looking up.

Point: I may be a bit of a drama-bomb when I bitch here. I realize that, will try to stop the impulse to post when things are bad, and work on putting up more hands that are interesting in ways that don't include bad beats.

How does one lose 6 buyins in 553 hands?

2008-08-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

How? Sit right back and you'll hear a tale a tale of a fateful trip...

kk < AA aipf one buyin
aks < AA aipf v same villain 5 minutes later one buyin
top pair v flopped set v maniac one buyin
tptk v flopped set same maniac 4 minutes later one buyin (4 so far!!!)
AA v flopped quads, slowrolls me on river wooo!
99 < 88 aipf v maniac that stacked me twice already with sets above.

that's 6 buyins. the rest of my 548 i ran a little better than even. yay for that!

for the month now, 11k hands, -$182.

also, i switched over to holdem manager, and it kicks PT3's ass.

Another 3/5 Session at Muck

2008-08-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

First off, I learned last night that getting to the card room at 7:30pm on a Friday night is in no way "getting in before the rush." I was so proud about leaving home at 7 to get there early...suffice to say that valet was full (a rarity) and I was 37th on the list for 3/5.

Not so bad, except for the fact that this meant I'd have to not get tilted while I waited. The choices of things to do while you wait on a 37 man list are sorta limited, and all include tilt-inducers. I could play blackjack (tilt factor 5, also way too many $5 bets per hour), I could play craps (tilt factor 1, boredom factor 8.56), I could sit at the bar (tilt factor 7.4). In the end I played limit, which provides a variety of tilt factors depending on what sort of cards I'm dealt. I'm happy mucking for an hour, but am easily thrown off balance by some of the stupidness.

Example: Old asian guy thinks it's his job to put on a kill pot, so any time he wins the kill button he raises the next hand hoping to put on a kill. He does this for the 3rd time this hour (last time ended up showing Q4s), there are two callers, and I call with 67 of spades in the BB. Flop 34T with two clubs. It checks around. Turn is a 5 to give me the nutsack, but (ominous chord), it's a second diamond. The button bets, I c/r, 2 players call 12 cold (nice), and the button calls.

Obviously a club would be a scarecard, as would the board pairing. But I don't think I can get too excited about runner runner, right? (ominous chords repeat). River comes K of diamonds, I check call and he shows some junky flush. It doesn't bother me that he limped with T8 sooted. It doesn't bother me that he got there and got an extra bet on the river. But...he did call two cold on the turn, and for some reason I can't abide that shit.

That said, I play good. I buy in for $200 and at 10:20 or so am called for my seat and rack up $325

Again, the 3/5 game is sweet. There's drunk Fort Lewis soldier that puts in a dead straddle on my first hand, then moves in when it's raised to $50. Everyone folds. He moves in at least one other time in the first round, and he's buying drinks for anyone that would like one. No one else is raising, for the most part. 3bets are nearly non-existent, and so are usually minimum (b/c why would you want to lose customers when you 3bet 2%?).

The first hand I play: in the cutoff, one limper to me. I raise A9s to $25 and am called by drunk soldier and the limper. Flop comes 886 two tone but not my suit. EP limper makes it $30 into $80, I'd very much like to raise and would almost always do so online, but don't know whether he'd fold 22 here, so I go away. Soldier calls. Check/check on the turn (ten of blank). The river is an offsuit Queen, soldier check/calls $50 and EP shows 66 for the win.

Next hand I play, it folds to the button who raises to $20. I make it $65 from the sb with AA and everyone folds.

At least three other times that I can remember I raise limpers with strong hands and meet no resistance (AQ, AQ, AK).

Then, 3 limpers, I make it $35 in the sb with JJ. A different EP limper calls. No read, very quiet asian man. Flop comes k34 rainbow. He has a bit less than $200., and as I'm wondering if I should bet he's stacking his chips up in a tower to move in. He could be trying to intimidate me, but it doesn't matter b/c I'm way ahead or way behind. If he has the king he'll move in, and if he doesn't he'll fold, but the turn card almost certainly won't make a difference. So I check and he quickly check behind.

The turn is a blank, and now I figure I'll just take it down. I bet $40 and he quickly moves in. I felt a little steamy that he extracted a bet out of me and fold for the extra $145.

My last hand, so I could make it back by 1 to feed the baby: UTG I make it $20 with AQ (offsuit red) and get 4 callers. Flop AJ9 with two spades and I'm smelling disaster brewing. I bet $60 and thank jebus when everyone folds.

I still think it'd be hard to lose money at this game if I played it every day, but I can't play it every day and don't have the roll to lose even two buyins. I'll prolly still take some shots at it, but must be wary, for I do like poker and would have a hard time getting going again if I did something stupid.

August Goals Update (Update)

2008-08-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

I decided to stop being a nit and buy 6 months of Deuces Cracked. I'm in, have downloaded my first video, and plan to watch minimum 3 hours a week to start shoring up the game. We'll see how all that goes.

Mid-August Update and More on Aggression

2008-08-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

On August third scottwire made his post about aggression which really got me thinking about whether my low aggression was the key to turning it around. It's been 12 days, and I think that the results look fairly decisive in some ways, and not so much in others.

Here's 7/14-8/2:

Amongst other things, we'll notice that my winning streak was despite losing money without showdown consistently. And although I ended tiny winner for that 15k hands, I lost $700 without showdown.

My numbers during that time were 23/16/2.25

Now, 8/3 - 8/15:

Now, I'm a net winner without showdown. Unfortunately, I appear to be showing down quite a bit worse than before. Nevertheless, still a net tiny winner.

Numbers: 24/19/2.85

Aggression up over 25%, a bit looser than before, which I think needs to be corrected, and a higher % of pots that I open for a raise.

In addition, on the aggro front, I've increased my 3bet preflop % from 5% to 9% in the latter period, and my att to steal % has gone from 30 --> 35.

August goals
[ ] On track for 20k hands
(only 6k. as predicted, i didn't play for 5 days while my bro was in town. still think 15k is very reasonable).
[ ] 5ptbb/100.
(um...no. still working on that)
[x] Get/do coaching
(still swapping hands with littlebu and scottwire)
[x] Consider cardrunners
(yeah, i considered it. it looks like people like deuces cracked better, and i'm still considering it, and working on setting it up. i'm even more motivated now that i'm not killing it the way i thought i was briefly).
[ ] 2+2?
(haven't really spent much time there. maybe i'll hit up littlebu for some direction, b/c i know he's been using the microstakes forum for help).

I haven't quit, although I'm not pumping out hours with a frenzy like last month. For now I'm just trying to stay even-keeled and keep rolled so I don't need to move down :(.

Haven't Been Around Much, and A Milestone

2008-08-08T14:36:00.001-07:00

My brother was in town Monday til today, and haven't played a hand. Also, I'm still losing. For example, there's this hand. The guy had been sitting there for an hour, and I was fairly sure by the check/minraise I'd be able to get allin. The 7bet was kinda silly, whatever. But this is the sort of hand that I feel has been plaguing me.

So today was my first day back, lost 2 buyins in 500 hands and quit after the above hand.

Coincidentally, that hand hit a milestone for me! It put me in the red for the first time since I started the blog. Total #s: 18k hands, -$18.

woooooooooo!!!

Good News Bad News

2008-08-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

Bad news: I still can't win. In fact, look at my chart since i started at .25/.50 and you'll see my win has turned into something...statistically insignificant. Good news, is that I think maybe I've made a good change. After reading Scott's blog entry about aggressiveness, I decided he was right, as my money won without showdown had been on an ever-downward line since about hand 4k. So here's my chart for Saturday/Sunday/this morning, with money won without showdown in red.

The fact that it's above zero...that's a good thing. If we look at my 3 weeks of play, you can see I've lost a significant amount without showdown. That means I'm not stealing enough, not playing my draws aggressively enough, and I'm helping build pots and then laying down too often.

So, eh, I dunno. Carry on? This afternoon I'll do the HH's for bu and scott and see what they had to say about me. I'm excited for the week, but also have guests in town Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri and am skeptical about getting my hands in.

But...that might mean I have another live play post next weekend. Hoorah.

Lost Again Today: Moving Down

2008-08-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah. Another three buyins down, and now I'm right about 1.5ptbb/100 over 16k hands. I'm still super-rolled for .1/.25, but I'm moving down anyhow. If I'm not sure I can win at .25/.50 (and I'm not), then why play there? I played 6 or 7 hundred hands at .25nl today and lost there too (LDO), but it does look softer and maybe I can get something done this month.

Still shooting for 20-25k hands, still hope to hit that earn rate goal, and still doing HH swaps with bu and scottwire. Hopefully I'll have good news in a week or two.

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

2008-07-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

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).

Help Me Jeeeeebus

2008-07-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Wife Swapping, urm HH Swapping With Littlebu

2008-07-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

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.

A Generic Update

2008-07-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

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.

An Okay Day, and Can I handle the Swings?

2008-07-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

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...

My First Actual Bad Day

2008-07-25T14:54:00.001-07:00

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...

Back on Track?

2008-07-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Resolution #3: Be Serious About Working On My Game

2008-07-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

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:

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

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

2008-07-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

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.

More .25/.50 Glory

2008-07-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

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

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

2008-07-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Small Victories = Valuable Ego Boosts

2008-07-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Good Start to the .25/.50 project

2008-07-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Update on Resolution #2: FAIL

2008-07-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2008-07-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2008-07-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2008-07-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

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?

Poker is Hard

2008-07-15T03:11:00.001-07:00

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.

Started playing .25/.50 6max today

2008-07-14T22:40:00.001-07:00

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.

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

2008-07-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Woo new blog. MMN HOE tournament.

2008-07-14T21:41:00.001-07:00

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.