Well, it's been a pretty busy few days poker wise.
I went to AC Hilton on Saturday to play in the 2PM tournament.
It ended up being a 5 table tournament. I was a little up and then a little down in chips going into the 6th round ($400/$800 + $100 ante). I had about 7K in chips.
So, I was in a pretty much All-in or fold mode. I did break a rule I should have just adhered to - which is to be the first one to go all in and not call someone who was already all-in. This korean lady, who reminded me of my mom, went all in. I looked down at Ad-9d and re-raised all in to isolate. I noticed the BB wanted to call her but got out of my way. The lady flipped over Q-9 and I got lucky that I was in a situation where I dominated her hand. Unfortunately, she hit her Queen and I was left with next to no chips. The very next hand, ironically, I get J-5o. My all-time defining hand I get online. So I'm out.
So...on to the cash game. I got knocked out at the final two tables and then went to see what kind of action was at the $1/$2 table. It was around 4PM and I had only planned on playing for 3 to 4 hours then make the trek back home.
I usually expect aggressive players so my default play is a tight/passive game and trap a lot. I did that early with pocket Kings. I limped with them and got involved in a pot with 3 others. The flop came out A-A-K. So I had a great flop and of course checked it. It got checked around. Turn card - another Ace. Great. My hand could lose to quad aces....then I remembered there is a $30K bad beat prize. My hand would definitely qualify. So now I'm hoping someone did have the ace. It got checked down to the river and I finally bet for value and got no callers. Then I flipped up my Kings. I think that might have set the tone for the table. It basically announced that I can limp with a hand that strong and be able to check it down and trap. So I think that put everyone on playing passively.
The eventual problem was the whole table played tight and passive. This allowed me to limp into a lot of pots with a bunch of medium strength hands like QJ and even stuff like suited connectors from almost any position. Nobody was raising.
We went on like this for like the next 6 hours. It was just a grind-fest with everyone. I really couldn't catch anything and eventually started playing aggressively. So I eventually got felted with my initial $160 buy-in. This old lady raised pre-flop with JJ and I called with Kd-Qd. The flop came out rags with two diamonds and I went all-in. Of course, she insta-called. I think I was a slight favorite to win actually. 9 plus 4 outs twice. I put her on the overpair and was right on with my read. But I didn't catch any of my outs and had to go to the ATM to buy back in.
So I'm back with another $200. The table play still hadn't changed much. A lot of limping from everyone. It was getting to become a grind. However, that all changed around 9PM. We finally got some new blood at the table and there was some new action and it started to pick up. I kept on eyeing my watch to see when I should leave but as I was doing that, in walks this complete fish, half-drunk. Looks like I'm here for a while!
Me vs. drunk fish - Part 1
I limp with A2. I'm in the hand with drunk fish and this other guy who left and then came back. I know his style - he tends semi-bluff a lot.
Flop:
As Ad 9s.
I check. Semi-bluffer bets out $10. Drunk fish calls, I check-raise to $30. Semi-bluffer folds but Drunk fish calls. So at this point, it's my first tangle with this guy so I don't know how he plays so I put him on an Ace. So I really didn't like my kicker so the turn card comes - 7s. Now there's a possible flush. I check. He bets $10. At this point I have a hand strong enough to call but not necessarily enough to raise with.
River: 9c. Now, I've got a boat and am sure I have the best hand. However, I put him on an Ace after the flop so I figured it was a chop pot so I bet $20 and he called. He had a flush. I take down a nice pot. People asked me why I didn't bet more and I said I figured he had an Ace as well. So there's no point in building a pot for the casino to rake in more when I figured we'd be splitting.
Me vs. Drunk Fish (part 2)
This time, I limp with 6c7c in early position. A new guy sat down, who was a friend to one of the other players at my table. So he's doing pretty good in chips. Long story short, going into the river, I needed a 5 to make the nuts straight. It was me, new guy and drunk fish in the pot. I hit my 5 to make the straight to the 7 while at the same time, it made a lower straight for both of my opponents (A-5). When the 5 hit, I checked in early position. The new guy bet $25 into the pot. The drunk fish calls. I come over the top for another $75. At this point, I'm praying the drunk fish calls but instead the new guy calls and the drunk folds. Damn!
I get paid off and took another $$50 from the drunk fish. Thanks man!
After that, I started to amass some serious chips at my table. It's amazing how you can get sucked into the same tight/passive game if everyone else is doing it. I guess it's the fear of being trapped. I'm realizing this and had to wake myself up and change how I play. So I started to raise with some really shitty hands just to see if I can steal and it worked! I made someone lay down pocket Jacks with 7-3 offsuit. All I had was a pair of threes on the flop but bet it aggressively when a second King hit the board on the river.
Again, I raised with 2-7o. I bet on the flop, turn and river and this one guy kept on check calling me. I figured I was dead until I rivered my second 7 and won showing down my deuce-seven. I don't think he liked that.
Anyway, after that particular hand, I started playing tight since now I've shown some loose play to the table. I got hot for a while. I flopped a lot of two pairs. Someone lost all their chips when I flopped top two pair with A-J and they had pocket Queens. The Ace alone should have slowed him down but it didn't. I tried to sell him on a straight draw but I don't know if that worked.
I also made a pretty good laydown. I was against another asian guy. I had AJ and according to him, he had A-T. I raised pre-flop to $10 and he called in the small blind. He checked in the dark. I've seen him do that a few times so I got creative and bet $10 in the dark to take away his position. Fortunately, I hit my Ace so I felt like I had the best hand with that flop (A T x). However, I had opened the betting so now he could come over the top. And he did. He raised it up to $25.
I had to sit there and think about what he could have. The best hand he could have that I could beat would be A-9. I'm not sure if he'd call A-9 out of position, unless it was suited perhaps. But the fact that I bet $10 in the dark indicated I had a strong hand that could withstand most flops. He probably had to think I had AK or better (QQ to AA). He could at this point eliminate Aces since I'd insta-called or insta-raised with trips.
So his re-raise did seem like a legitimate hand. So I had to put him on a better Ace than mine. So I folded and showed him my hand, which I usually don't make a habit of doing but he said I made a very good read on him. Plus, I usually go with how I feel and have learned to trust my instincts on when I'm beat. I've gotten those feelings before but would ignore them because I just had to see the cards for myself. Never in my life would I hope to be wrong. Being right about being beat, regardless if I had the best hand going in, is never bittersweet. It always sucks.
Once, online, I had Aces and raised pre-flop and got a caller. The flop came out: K-Q-x. I raised a pot sized bet and my opponent went all in. My first instinct was he flopped two - pair. For some reason I put him on KQ. Maybe it was just because he just called and didn't re-raise pre-flop. But anyway, I put him on KQ but couldn't let my Aces go and paid him off. Of course I was right about his hand.
So, recently, I've gotten much better with having the discipline to lay down a hand I think is beat.
Next topic - my cash game endeavors.
If you remember, I started out with $250 for my bankroll in playing $0.05/$0.10 NL games on pokerstars.
I ended my first session at $271.30.
Last night I started there and was up quite a bit. But then got on a slight tilt after some donkey called my all-in with Jc9c and tripped up on his 9 vs. my pocket Queens. That did irritated me a little. I was trying to get involved with hands with him which was probably my first mistake. He min-raised this one hand. I had pocket Kings and re-raised all in which was way too much money. Someone had Aces and called me. I lost my stack there and had to buy back in.
But besides, that my play wasn't too bad. There was one hand somewhere else I could have layed down (pocket 10s). Two people went all-in. I thought I was up against two high cards but I was up against QQ and A8. Of course the donkey with A8 caught his Ace. Oh well.
I played for about 3 hours and my ending stack was at $266.85 (-4.45 for the session).
Which brings me today.
I started off with $266.85 and ended with $285.00 after over 4.5 hours of play.
Again, limping with pocket pairs and hitting trips has been the best money maker for me thus far. It is particularly profitable if there is a pre-flop raiser.
I have to say though, I hit my trips about 1 out of every 3 to 4 times I get a pocket pair. That is much, much more often than it should happen. But I'm getting paid off pretty well when I do so that's all that matters. I lose very little when I miss but get paid off a lot when I hit.
As I mentioned earlier, I've learned to throw away some decent pocket pairs. I've limped with pocket Jacks in late position because I just feel with a lot of callers in before me, I can't really raise a lot and risk facing an all-in pre-flop or face a tough decision when a scare card hits the flop. Additionally, with more callers, all it takes is one caller for everyone else behind him to be priced in. So I won't really bother raising with Jacks. I just treat them no differently than any middle pocket pair (66-TT).
So all-in-all, it's been pretty good. At this point, my expected bankroll should be at $258 or just beneath that amount. So to be at $285 is great so far. I still have to go through the swings of bad beats and other crap I'm sure I'll have to deal with but we'll see. I think I will move up to the next level ($0.10/$0.25) when I have built my bankroll to about $650. I'm not sure how many hours that will be but I guess I'll find out.
Okay, peace.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Finally start my cash game
Okay, I know it's been a while since I talked about starting a bankroll and playing the $0.05/$0.10 game but I finally deposited into PS and started off with $250 - 25 times the max buy in for that game.
I also started an Excel spreadsheet on my stats. I have the date, starting amount for each session, the time I start and the time I end, and my ending amount for that session.
For my first session, I decided to play 4 tables at a time. It was a little hectic at first but it kept me busy and focused on the game. Too often, when I'm a little card dead, I stop paying attention so having multiple games running helps. Also, it will also increase my hourly return by playing multiple tables.
So according to the book, I should average about 20 cents per hour per table if I play solid poker. So considering I was playing 4 tables, my expected profit in two hours should be around $1.60. Well here is my stats for today:
Hours played: 2 hours
Starting bankroll: $250
Ending bankroll: (drumroll pls..) $271.30
Wow. That's all I have to say. I was getting some good cards, no doubt about it. I got dealt Aces 3 times and Kings twice and didn't get have them cracked. So that's lucky. However, out of those 5 hands, I only won a big pot with a pre-flop all in with the pocket kings. The other hands, I won modest pots with.
To be honest, the biggest pots I won were with flopping trips. My basic strategy with mid and low pocket pairs is not to raise with them pre-flop. They have little immediate value. Instead, they have a lot of IMPLIED value - meaning, if you flop trips, you will get paid off in a big way. However, you will only flop trips about 11% of the time. So there's no point in raising 3 times the big blind and then having to deal with callers. Most of the time you will miss on the flop and then you really don't know where you're at. The way I like to play them is to limp in and only invest 1 BB and see if I can hit. Even if someone raises, given I have a big enough stack, I can easily call up to 4 times the BB. The worst case scenario is you're up a bigger pair where you're 4:1 dog so you can still call and not lose money in the long run. If you hit, you could get paid off by Aces or Kings, perhaps even get their entire stack. But most of the time, you'll be up against two higher cards and if you're lucky, they'll flop top pair with a very nice kicker and will be severe underdog to your set.
Of course, every flop is different. You might flop a set and the raiser missed but has a lot of outs. Maybe they think they have two overcards with a flush draw which they may think are all good outs (9 + 4 = 13 cards). They might be ready to go to war with their hand. It's definitely important to assess the flop and how connected it is and even though you have the best hand with trips, your opponent my incorrectly believe they are a coin-flip situation and push all-in. A set might be as dominant as a 2:1 favorite against a flush draw but still, you will lose a third of the time in these situations.
Luckily for me, many of the situations where I flopped a set, the flop was pretty disconnected and I wasn't afraid to either give my opponents a free card or check raise them.
Lately, I've been appreciating the "small-ball" method to playing NLHE. I'm beginning to understand why pros like playing this way. Just in case those reading this do not know what "small-ball" and "long-ball" is, a quick definition:
"Long-ball" poker - this method involves big bets and often employing the all-in move.
"Small-ball' poker - this method is the opposite: meaning bets are often small and often feeling out the opponent and an avoidance of the all-in move unless the player has the nuts.
Another analogy is boxing styles. Long ball would involve trying to use the knockout punch a lot. Small ball would be just taking a series of jabs here and there and chipping away at your opponent.
So lately, I've been studying and learning the "small-ball" method. The reason is, I think it's more profitable to play this way. In the past, I used a lot of "long ball" plays. I think it came from reading Doyle's 'Super System' and thinking that aggressive play and putting your opponents to a decision for all their chips was the correct way to play. While in one sense that is true. You do want to play aggressively and put your opponents to make difficult decisions but if you don't understand the finer points of playing poker, you leave yourself a big hole in your game that good players will exploit. Mainly they will trap a lot, re-raise you weaker hands, etc. Every style actually has its strengths and weaknesses.
Back to my original point. IMO, playing small ball will minimize your losses and maximize your winnings. If you're constantly putting out small bets out there, you can gain information about your opponents. I usually go about half the size of the pot for my bets. The trick is, I will bet no matter how strong or weak my hand is. I might have a gut shot straight and will still bet at it. Or I could flop the nuts and still bet the same amount. It will make it practically impossible for my opponents to know if I'm drawing or already there. They can either fold, call or raise. If I'm drawing, obviously the board is connected and if they call, they either have a medium strength hand or also on a draw. If I get raised, they have a strong hand - at least top pair or better. Of course, many times people will just fold because 2 out of 3 flops, your opponent misses the flop completely. So you take down a small pot or fold without too much invested or, if you're getting the right price you can call a raise.
Now if you put in a small bet and someone goes all in, then you can't really call unless you have the best hand. But if you've identified a person who likes to play long ball like that, it's only a matter of time where they will get called with the best hand. And that's really the hole in long ball. You gain little but also lose a lot.
Example - this past weekend, I played in a rebuy tournament. I was at a table where this guy would raise pre-flop and then follow up with an all in after it. He did that twice. He did that with AK and lost, re-bought, and lost again with pocket Queens. He lost to the same guy who played some trash hands. The trash hands were two 4-5s (vs. the AK and flopped a 5) and A-5o (vs the QQ and flopped an A). Now this donkey who would call with trash hands, is a perfect example of tight-aggressive long ball player's nightmare. The guy who took a beating reminded me of myself a few years ago. I just hated players who would play trash and get there.
I quickly learned each person's style of play and adjusted my game accordingly. A good player should be able to see each person's flaws and exploit them. So fast-forward about 10 hands and this punching bag and I are tangled in a hand. I raise with pocket Jacks. He calls with J-To. He flops top pair and I have the overpair. He bets it, and I immediately know he has a hand like AT or KT or something like that. I re-raise him and of course, like clockwork, he goes all in. He shows his JT and I show my pocket jacks and drawing only to the remaining two 10s in the deck - I knock him out of the tourney.
The main thing is when you play against donkeys like the one I described above, hands like QQ and KK go down in value quite a bit. Having the discipline to lay down those big pocket pairs when an Ace hits is difficult but it doesn't change the fact that a pair of Aces still beats a pair of Kings. Instead, you want to make them pay dearly for playing such a bad kicker and when you raise with AK, AQ or even AJ, and they call your raise with A5, now you can make them pay dearly when they hit their Ace. You start chipping away at their chip stacks for having kicker issues.
The other advantage of small ball play is you offer very little or no implied odds to your opponents.
Implied odds is a little different than pot odds. Pot odds are pretty easy to understand and to calculate if you practice a little. Implied odds are more slippery to figure out. Basically the concept is, even if you don't have the pot odds to call typically on the turn, if you hit your card, you could more than recoup that amount because you know your opponent will pay you off.
Example: If you're on a flush draw on after the flop and the pot is $700. If your opponent bets $400, the pot is offering you $1100/$400 or roughly 3:1. But your chance of hitting your flush on the turn is only 19%. So it wouldn't be a profitable call. But if you pay the $400 now and hit your card and could extract another $1000 from your opponent on the turn and river, then $400 to get $2100 would be profitable.
Quite often, implied odds are more important to consider. But implied odds can vary widely based on how your opponents play. If you play against tight players, you might as well forget it. They offer little or no implied odds. They'll make you pay too much for a card but if you hit and they know it, they'll shut it down and while you take down a pot, you made a losing bet. Over time, you will lose money. On the other side, loose and aggressive players offer fantastic implied odds. They're style is fast and big. Paying a little too much now is a small price to get the rest of their stack. Hence, another flaw in long ball play. If an opponent will put their stack at risk with top pair, playing small pocket pairs is a great hand to try to trip up on. Or even suited connectors could do the job if a lot of rags flop and you hit two pair or better. Playing small ball in these situations helps because if a scare card comes out, you can just check it and now your opponent has to do the betting. Then you can decide to continue or fold. The value of small bets no longer pay off bad calls on earlier streets. Now if you were ahead but now behind, you've lost the minimum for you hand and can fold. This is called 'folding equity'. Quite often, the difference between a winning player and a losing player is exactly this. It's not that both types can't get paid off with the best hand, it's a matter of who loses the least with the second best hand. We've all been in these situations....it's not easy. Just the other day, I had Aces and after the flop, every instinct told me my opponent had trips (after 2 re-raises). I still didn't have the discipline to lay down the aces. I had to see if I was right. It is exactly these situations that differentiate me and someone like Phil Hellmuth or any top ranked pro. They can throw it away and continue on and possibly come back and win the tournament. I need to get there, especially when I had the instincts to know I was behind.
Playing small ball can limit your losses when you don't have the best hand. At the same time, you can win a lot of small pots by outplaying your opponents. Don't count on doubling up this way though, unless someone is willing to go all-in and you have Aces.
Now all this talk about small ball and how great it is, there is a downside. It requires a lot of practice and confidence that you can outplay your opponents after the flop and on the following streets. This means reading your opponents and exploiting their weaknesses.
Well, I think this post is long enough.
I also started an Excel spreadsheet on my stats. I have the date, starting amount for each session, the time I start and the time I end, and my ending amount for that session.
For my first session, I decided to play 4 tables at a time. It was a little hectic at first but it kept me busy and focused on the game. Too often, when I'm a little card dead, I stop paying attention so having multiple games running helps. Also, it will also increase my hourly return by playing multiple tables.
So according to the book, I should average about 20 cents per hour per table if I play solid poker. So considering I was playing 4 tables, my expected profit in two hours should be around $1.60. Well here is my stats for today:
Hours played: 2 hours
Starting bankroll: $250
Ending bankroll: (drumroll pls..) $271.30
Wow. That's all I have to say. I was getting some good cards, no doubt about it. I got dealt Aces 3 times and Kings twice and didn't get have them cracked. So that's lucky. However, out of those 5 hands, I only won a big pot with a pre-flop all in with the pocket kings. The other hands, I won modest pots with.
To be honest, the biggest pots I won were with flopping trips. My basic strategy with mid and low pocket pairs is not to raise with them pre-flop. They have little immediate value. Instead, they have a lot of IMPLIED value - meaning, if you flop trips, you will get paid off in a big way. However, you will only flop trips about 11% of the time. So there's no point in raising 3 times the big blind and then having to deal with callers. Most of the time you will miss on the flop and then you really don't know where you're at. The way I like to play them is to limp in and only invest 1 BB and see if I can hit. Even if someone raises, given I have a big enough stack, I can easily call up to 4 times the BB. The worst case scenario is you're up a bigger pair where you're 4:1 dog so you can still call and not lose money in the long run. If you hit, you could get paid off by Aces or Kings, perhaps even get their entire stack. But most of the time, you'll be up against two higher cards and if you're lucky, they'll flop top pair with a very nice kicker and will be severe underdog to your set.
Of course, every flop is different. You might flop a set and the raiser missed but has a lot of outs. Maybe they think they have two overcards with a flush draw which they may think are all good outs (9 + 4 = 13 cards). They might be ready to go to war with their hand. It's definitely important to assess the flop and how connected it is and even though you have the best hand with trips, your opponent my incorrectly believe they are a coin-flip situation and push all-in. A set might be as dominant as a 2:1 favorite against a flush draw but still, you will lose a third of the time in these situations.
Luckily for me, many of the situations where I flopped a set, the flop was pretty disconnected and I wasn't afraid to either give my opponents a free card or check raise them.
Lately, I've been appreciating the "small-ball" method to playing NLHE. I'm beginning to understand why pros like playing this way. Just in case those reading this do not know what "small-ball" and "long-ball" is, a quick definition:
"Long-ball" poker - this method involves big bets and often employing the all-in move.
"Small-ball' poker - this method is the opposite: meaning bets are often small and often feeling out the opponent and an avoidance of the all-in move unless the player has the nuts.
Another analogy is boxing styles. Long ball would involve trying to use the knockout punch a lot. Small ball would be just taking a series of jabs here and there and chipping away at your opponent.
So lately, I've been studying and learning the "small-ball" method. The reason is, I think it's more profitable to play this way. In the past, I used a lot of "long ball" plays. I think it came from reading Doyle's 'Super System' and thinking that aggressive play and putting your opponents to a decision for all their chips was the correct way to play. While in one sense that is true. You do want to play aggressively and put your opponents to make difficult decisions but if you don't understand the finer points of playing poker, you leave yourself a big hole in your game that good players will exploit. Mainly they will trap a lot, re-raise you weaker hands, etc. Every style actually has its strengths and weaknesses.
Back to my original point. IMO, playing small ball will minimize your losses and maximize your winnings. If you're constantly putting out small bets out there, you can gain information about your opponents. I usually go about half the size of the pot for my bets. The trick is, I will bet no matter how strong or weak my hand is. I might have a gut shot straight and will still bet at it. Or I could flop the nuts and still bet the same amount. It will make it practically impossible for my opponents to know if I'm drawing or already there. They can either fold, call or raise. If I'm drawing, obviously the board is connected and if they call, they either have a medium strength hand or also on a draw. If I get raised, they have a strong hand - at least top pair or better. Of course, many times people will just fold because 2 out of 3 flops, your opponent misses the flop completely. So you take down a small pot or fold without too much invested or, if you're getting the right price you can call a raise.
Now if you put in a small bet and someone goes all in, then you can't really call unless you have the best hand. But if you've identified a person who likes to play long ball like that, it's only a matter of time where they will get called with the best hand. And that's really the hole in long ball. You gain little but also lose a lot.
Example - this past weekend, I played in a rebuy tournament. I was at a table where this guy would raise pre-flop and then follow up with an all in after it. He did that twice. He did that with AK and lost, re-bought, and lost again with pocket Queens. He lost to the same guy who played some trash hands. The trash hands were two 4-5s (vs. the AK and flopped a 5) and A-5o (vs the QQ and flopped an A). Now this donkey who would call with trash hands, is a perfect example of tight-aggressive long ball player's nightmare. The guy who took a beating reminded me of myself a few years ago. I just hated players who would play trash and get there.
I quickly learned each person's style of play and adjusted my game accordingly. A good player should be able to see each person's flaws and exploit them. So fast-forward about 10 hands and this punching bag and I are tangled in a hand. I raise with pocket Jacks. He calls with J-To. He flops top pair and I have the overpair. He bets it, and I immediately know he has a hand like AT or KT or something like that. I re-raise him and of course, like clockwork, he goes all in. He shows his JT and I show my pocket jacks and drawing only to the remaining two 10s in the deck - I knock him out of the tourney.
The main thing is when you play against donkeys like the one I described above, hands like QQ and KK go down in value quite a bit. Having the discipline to lay down those big pocket pairs when an Ace hits is difficult but it doesn't change the fact that a pair of Aces still beats a pair of Kings. Instead, you want to make them pay dearly for playing such a bad kicker and when you raise with AK, AQ or even AJ, and they call your raise with A5, now you can make them pay dearly when they hit their Ace. You start chipping away at their chip stacks for having kicker issues.
The other advantage of small ball play is you offer very little or no implied odds to your opponents.
Implied odds is a little different than pot odds. Pot odds are pretty easy to understand and to calculate if you practice a little. Implied odds are more slippery to figure out. Basically the concept is, even if you don't have the pot odds to call typically on the turn, if you hit your card, you could more than recoup that amount because you know your opponent will pay you off.
Example: If you're on a flush draw on after the flop and the pot is $700. If your opponent bets $400, the pot is offering you $1100/$400 or roughly 3:1. But your chance of hitting your flush on the turn is only 19%. So it wouldn't be a profitable call. But if you pay the $400 now and hit your card and could extract another $1000 from your opponent on the turn and river, then $400 to get $2100 would be profitable.
Quite often, implied odds are more important to consider. But implied odds can vary widely based on how your opponents play. If you play against tight players, you might as well forget it. They offer little or no implied odds. They'll make you pay too much for a card but if you hit and they know it, they'll shut it down and while you take down a pot, you made a losing bet. Over time, you will lose money. On the other side, loose and aggressive players offer fantastic implied odds. They're style is fast and big. Paying a little too much now is a small price to get the rest of their stack. Hence, another flaw in long ball play. If an opponent will put their stack at risk with top pair, playing small pocket pairs is a great hand to try to trip up on. Or even suited connectors could do the job if a lot of rags flop and you hit two pair or better. Playing small ball in these situations helps because if a scare card comes out, you can just check it and now your opponent has to do the betting. Then you can decide to continue or fold. The value of small bets no longer pay off bad calls on earlier streets. Now if you were ahead but now behind, you've lost the minimum for you hand and can fold. This is called 'folding equity'. Quite often, the difference between a winning player and a losing player is exactly this. It's not that both types can't get paid off with the best hand, it's a matter of who loses the least with the second best hand. We've all been in these situations....it's not easy. Just the other day, I had Aces and after the flop, every instinct told me my opponent had trips (after 2 re-raises). I still didn't have the discipline to lay down the aces. I had to see if I was right. It is exactly these situations that differentiate me and someone like Phil Hellmuth or any top ranked pro. They can throw it away and continue on and possibly come back and win the tournament. I need to get there, especially when I had the instincts to know I was behind.
Playing small ball can limit your losses when you don't have the best hand. At the same time, you can win a lot of small pots by outplaying your opponents. Don't count on doubling up this way though, unless someone is willing to go all-in and you have Aces.
Now all this talk about small ball and how great it is, there is a downside. It requires a lot of practice and confidence that you can outplay your opponents after the flop and on the following streets. This means reading your opponents and exploiting their weaknesses.
Well, I think this post is long enough.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
on the bubble
Well, I just got back from a $100 NLHE tournament. It was a local tournament and it paid out to the top 4 players. I got knocked out at 5th place. Go figure.
I was the short stack as the BB. I had $2175 after my $400 BB (the blinds were $200/$400-$50 ante). So I was very short stacked. Anyway, I had 5-2o in the BB. There were 2 limpers and the blinds in the hand pre-flop.
So the flop comes 2-5-J. Well, with about almost $2000 in the pot, I went all in figuring my two pair was best. Well, I got called. I was hoping for a mid-pocket pair or two high cards or even A-J. Nope. The guy called me with pocket fives. That was the one of very few hands that had me dominated. I would need to hit running deuces to win. Of course that didn't happen. Oh well, there is absolutely nothing I can do with that. I can't fold and neither could the other guy. I was destined to lose that hand and go out on the bubble.
However, I think my play today was very good. In fact, I think I played extremely well. I made a good play with pocket Kings early:
It was early in the tournament and I had pocket Kings in the big blind. My opponent raised it to $175 (the blinds were $25/$50). I just called in the big blind. I checked in the dark. The flop comes out 6-8-J. He bets out $200. I min-raised him to $400. He thinks about it and calls. The turn comes, blank card. I bet $500. He was pretty perplexed with that bet. I said he hit the flop but he ended up folding.
I think he probably had K-J or maybe even A-J. He's played with me plenty of times and probably put me on a strong hand like QQ or something of that strength. He knows I'm a pretty tight player and wouldn't call a raise out of position with a marginal hand. I think I got about as much as I could for that hand.
The other hand I think I played pretty well was a bluff. I was in the hand with two other players as the BB. Three hearts came out and the small blind checked, I checked and the last player checked. The small blind was pretty short stacked but had about 12 BB in him. So after the flop, a non-heart came out and he checked and I bet about half the pot. I was thinking how I would play the hand if I hit the flop but was afraid of the flush? I think I would check the flop and bet the turn. So I bet the turn. The guy in position folded and the small blind called. I had absolutely nothing. I had two spades, in fact. The last card put another blank card - non-heart. The small blind checked and I had to bet in order to win the pot. I knew with his stack, he couldn't just call and hope to win. Every bet he puts out there is one less bet he can steal with later if he doesn't win this hand. So I bet half the pot with nothing again and he even said, "I think you have a pair with a flush draw." and mucked his hand.
The next highlight hand was with the same guy I bluffed, in the exact same position. He was the small blind and I was the big blind. I had pocket 10s and after he limped, I raised him three times the BB. He called. The board made my 10s an over pair. He checked and I bet half the pot. He called. The turn brought a flush and I checked and he checked behind me. The river paired the board. The pot had about $1000 and he bet $500. So at this point, I don't have a hand strong enough to raise but I did have a hand that could beat any pair that he might have made. Also, he could have tripped up or slow played the flush. So I just called and he showed Ad-6d. He caught his 6 on the flop and thought I missed with AK or AQ possibly.
I showed him my pocket 10s and took down a nice pot.
So this guy to my right was very short stacked now. About 3 or 4 hands later, I see him limp in with a hand. He probably had about $700 and the blinds were $50/$100. So really he was in the all-in/fold mode. So I was really wondering why he's limping in. But in this particular hand, I saw him limp and then check call a $200 bet on the flop. So I'm thinking what the hell is he just calling? I was thinking, he has a monster hand and trying to extract maximum value. So the turn comes, he bets $200. The fool playing him calls. The river comes and goes all in with the remaining $200.
The idiot has to call with those pot odds....not realizing his opponent was playing the complete opposite of short-stacked play. Turns out he flopped a set. He doubled up. I saw his play a mile away. I would have shut it all down after the check-call on the flop.
Anyway, I was pretty proud of how I played and got all my reads correctly.
Still need to deposit $250 into my other pokerstars account to play some cash games online.
Well, that's about it. I'm still loving my iMac. It's great.
As a side note, I play in a band (keyboards) and we're playing in N. Va. on August 5th. It will be my first live performance since my piano recitals when I was like 16.
That's it!
I was the short stack as the BB. I had $2175 after my $400 BB (the blinds were $200/$400-$50 ante). So I was very short stacked. Anyway, I had 5-2o in the BB. There were 2 limpers and the blinds in the hand pre-flop.
So the flop comes 2-5-J. Well, with about almost $2000 in the pot, I went all in figuring my two pair was best. Well, I got called. I was hoping for a mid-pocket pair or two high cards or even A-J. Nope. The guy called me with pocket fives. That was the one of very few hands that had me dominated. I would need to hit running deuces to win. Of course that didn't happen. Oh well, there is absolutely nothing I can do with that. I can't fold and neither could the other guy. I was destined to lose that hand and go out on the bubble.
However, I think my play today was very good. In fact, I think I played extremely well. I made a good play with pocket Kings early:
It was early in the tournament and I had pocket Kings in the big blind. My opponent raised it to $175 (the blinds were $25/$50). I just called in the big blind. I checked in the dark. The flop comes out 6-8-J. He bets out $200. I min-raised him to $400. He thinks about it and calls. The turn comes, blank card. I bet $500. He was pretty perplexed with that bet. I said he hit the flop but he ended up folding.
I think he probably had K-J or maybe even A-J. He's played with me plenty of times and probably put me on a strong hand like QQ or something of that strength. He knows I'm a pretty tight player and wouldn't call a raise out of position with a marginal hand. I think I got about as much as I could for that hand.
The other hand I think I played pretty well was a bluff. I was in the hand with two other players as the BB. Three hearts came out and the small blind checked, I checked and the last player checked. The small blind was pretty short stacked but had about 12 BB in him. So after the flop, a non-heart came out and he checked and I bet about half the pot. I was thinking how I would play the hand if I hit the flop but was afraid of the flush? I think I would check the flop and bet the turn. So I bet the turn. The guy in position folded and the small blind called. I had absolutely nothing. I had two spades, in fact. The last card put another blank card - non-heart. The small blind checked and I had to bet in order to win the pot. I knew with his stack, he couldn't just call and hope to win. Every bet he puts out there is one less bet he can steal with later if he doesn't win this hand. So I bet half the pot with nothing again and he even said, "I think you have a pair with a flush draw." and mucked his hand.
The next highlight hand was with the same guy I bluffed, in the exact same position. He was the small blind and I was the big blind. I had pocket 10s and after he limped, I raised him three times the BB. He called. The board made my 10s an over pair. He checked and I bet half the pot. He called. The turn brought a flush and I checked and he checked behind me. The river paired the board. The pot had about $1000 and he bet $500. So at this point, I don't have a hand strong enough to raise but I did have a hand that could beat any pair that he might have made. Also, he could have tripped up or slow played the flush. So I just called and he showed Ad-6d. He caught his 6 on the flop and thought I missed with AK or AQ possibly.
I showed him my pocket 10s and took down a nice pot.
So this guy to my right was very short stacked now. About 3 or 4 hands later, I see him limp in with a hand. He probably had about $700 and the blinds were $50/$100. So really he was in the all-in/fold mode. So I was really wondering why he's limping in. But in this particular hand, I saw him limp and then check call a $200 bet on the flop. So I'm thinking what the hell is he just calling? I was thinking, he has a monster hand and trying to extract maximum value. So the turn comes, he bets $200. The fool playing him calls. The river comes and goes all in with the remaining $200.
The idiot has to call with those pot odds....not realizing his opponent was playing the complete opposite of short-stacked play. Turns out he flopped a set. He doubled up. I saw his play a mile away. I would have shut it all down after the check-call on the flop.
Anyway, I was pretty proud of how I played and got all my reads correctly.
Still need to deposit $250 into my other pokerstars account to play some cash games online.
Well, that's about it. I'm still loving my iMac. It's great.
As a side note, I play in a band (keyboards) and we're playing in N. Va. on August 5th. It will be my first live performance since my piano recitals when I was like 16.
That's it!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
now a mac-er
Well, I made the switch to the mac. After about a month of frustration with my pc, I finally gave up on Windows. I'm about 90% sure that the hardware was fine and windows is a piece of shit. The problem with all this is there's no pokerstars software for the mac. At least not yet. I emailed support and they're working hard for a mac version.
So far so good on the mac. I thought I'd be lost but it's not that bad. Pretty easy transition. I did my research on the external drives making sure that I didn't lose anything in the transition. That was a relief. The only hiccup in the transition is I have all my internet email pop-forwarded into my Outlook inbox. So the emails don't reside on server once they are forwarded. So I have this huge .pst file that isn't compatible with Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook). It took me about a day to research this. I found all kinds of tools that cost money to do the job. But I found a tip from some website and the solution is quite simple:
Download Mozilla Thunderbird.
Import all your email from Outlook into Thunderbird.
Once that is complete, your email files will be in your windows profile folder typically, C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Thunderbird\(etc.)
There will be a file with no extension that will contain all your emails for that particular folder. That file is a regular text file using the MBOX format.
Transfer the files to your mac.
Drag the file to the Entourage folder and let the importing begin!
Now I have everything...well not everything.
Right now I have to play poker online using my Tablet PC which is fine for now. There might come a time where I might be forced to run an emulator on my mac (right now the best one is called 'Parallels') for work. If that happens, then I'll install pokerstars and can do everything on the same machine. We'll see.
Well, onto actual poker discussion.
Last Sunday, I played in a mega-satellite for the main event at the WSOP. There were almost 7000 entrants. I finished in 1080ish place. I was pretty card dead the entire 4 hour session. I only saw 12% of my hands on the flop or later.
As we were heading to the 4th break, I was the BB with KJo and it got folded all the way back to the SB. I was pretty short stacked ($1300 with $100/$200 $25ante). Suddenly the SB, who btw had a decent lead in chips compared to me, goes all in. I figured he had a weak hand and wanted to steal before the break and figured I didn't have much of a hand at all. So I insta-called with my KJ. He showed AQ and I got knocked out. It was a great play. I was short stacked, it was folded to just us. An all-in move would get no respect and any kind of hand would call, at least I would. An additional thing is, had this person raised, I'd either fold or go all-in.
Oh well, maybe next year.
Right now, I'm interested in getting into some cash games and start carving out a professional career. I'll have to start off small. Based on the book I just read, I'm gonna need a bankroll that will allow me to build.
Since I'll be specializing in NLHE, the max buy-in is 100 times the big blind.
This means at a $1/$2 table, the most I can sit down with is $200.
According to the book, experts (most players aren't expert level) would need about 15 times the max buy-in or in this example, $3000.
Good to very good players need about 25-30 times the max buy-in. I think I'm at that level so that puts me at $5k to $6k. Yeah...a little too rich for me to start off.
So I figure the $0.05/$0.10 game is around my neighborhood.
At 25 times the max buy-in for this game ($10) is $250. That is better.
So, very good players average about one big bet per hour. That is, at a $1/$2 table, a very good player can make a profit about $1 every hour they play. Consequently, to play professional full-time, I'd probably need to play profitably at the $25/$50 tables.
Anyone who thinks one big bet per hour is easy, try it. Take into consideration how many hours you've ever played in your life. Consider all the big wins and losses and all the break-even days. Even at 25/50 cent limits, if you've played 1000 hours in your lifetime, do you think you've profited $500? That's a lot of money if you think about it just from recreational playing. Surely you'd know if you're up that much.
Well, I'm gonna put it to the test.
I'll use this blog to record each day I play and how many hours I played, how much I started the session with and how much I ended with at the end of the session.
I'll be playing the 5/10 cent games.
I'll have to use my other account to keep money separate from my tournament money.
Oh, btw, I'll probably be playing 4 tables at a time. This way I can quadruple my earnings (actually 8 times). The great thing about internet poker is I can play as many tables as I want without having to increase my bankroll. The one big blind rule is based on a brick and mortar casino table. You roughly play twice as many hands online than you do in a casino. Playing 4 tables every hour is effective to an entire day!
So far so good on the mac. I thought I'd be lost but it's not that bad. Pretty easy transition. I did my research on the external drives making sure that I didn't lose anything in the transition. That was a relief. The only hiccup in the transition is I have all my internet email pop-forwarded into my Outlook inbox. So the emails don't reside on server once they are forwarded. So I have this huge .pst file that isn't compatible with Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook). It took me about a day to research this. I found all kinds of tools that cost money to do the job. But I found a tip from some website and the solution is quite simple:
Download Mozilla Thunderbird.
Import all your email from Outlook into Thunderbird.
Once that is complete, your email files will be in your windows profile folder typically, C:\Documents and Settings\
There will be a file with no extension that will contain all your emails for that particular folder. That file is a regular text file using the MBOX format.
Transfer the files to your mac.
Drag the file to the Entourage folder and let the importing begin!
Now I have everything...well not everything.
Right now I have to play poker online using my Tablet PC which is fine for now. There might come a time where I might be forced to run an emulator on my mac (right now the best one is called 'Parallels') for work. If that happens, then I'll install pokerstars and can do everything on the same machine. We'll see.
Well, onto actual poker discussion.
Last Sunday, I played in a mega-satellite for the main event at the WSOP. There were almost 7000 entrants. I finished in 1080ish place. I was pretty card dead the entire 4 hour session. I only saw 12% of my hands on the flop or later.
As we were heading to the 4th break, I was the BB with KJo and it got folded all the way back to the SB. I was pretty short stacked ($1300 with $100/$200 $25ante). Suddenly the SB, who btw had a decent lead in chips compared to me, goes all in. I figured he had a weak hand and wanted to steal before the break and figured I didn't have much of a hand at all. So I insta-called with my KJ. He showed AQ and I got knocked out. It was a great play. I was short stacked, it was folded to just us. An all-in move would get no respect and any kind of hand would call, at least I would. An additional thing is, had this person raised, I'd either fold or go all-in.
Oh well, maybe next year.
Right now, I'm interested in getting into some cash games and start carving out a professional career. I'll have to start off small. Based on the book I just read, I'm gonna need a bankroll that will allow me to build.
Since I'll be specializing in NLHE, the max buy-in is 100 times the big blind.
This means at a $1/$2 table, the most I can sit down with is $200.
According to the book, experts (most players aren't expert level) would need about 15 times the max buy-in or in this example, $3000.
Good to very good players need about 25-30 times the max buy-in. I think I'm at that level so that puts me at $5k to $6k. Yeah...a little too rich for me to start off.
So I figure the $0.05/$0.10 game is around my neighborhood.
At 25 times the max buy-in for this game ($10) is $250. That is better.
So, very good players average about one big bet per hour. That is, at a $1/$2 table, a very good player can make a profit about $1 every hour they play. Consequently, to play professional full-time, I'd probably need to play profitably at the $25/$50 tables.
Anyone who thinks one big bet per hour is easy, try it. Take into consideration how many hours you've ever played in your life. Consider all the big wins and losses and all the break-even days. Even at 25/50 cent limits, if you've played 1000 hours in your lifetime, do you think you've profited $500? That's a lot of money if you think about it just from recreational playing. Surely you'd know if you're up that much.
Well, I'm gonna put it to the test.
I'll use this blog to record each day I play and how many hours I played, how much I started the session with and how much I ended with at the end of the session.
I'll be playing the 5/10 cent games.
I'll have to use my other account to keep money separate from my tournament money.
Oh, btw, I'll probably be playing 4 tables at a time. This way I can quadruple my earnings (actually 8 times). The great thing about internet poker is I can play as many tables as I want without having to increase my bankroll. The one big blind rule is based on a brick and mortar casino table. You roughly play twice as many hands online than you do in a casino. Playing 4 tables every hour is effective to an entire day!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
new ring game
Well a poker buddy of mine introduced me to a new cash game on Sunday nights. It's not a weekly game. It's like every 3 Sundays or so.
So I came down to check it out.
The first game I was in, I lost to a girl who flopped quad jacks. The game was 0.50/1.00 limit. The cap buy-in was $100...pretty standard. Anyway, this girl limped in for a $1 with pocket Jacks. That practically made it impossible for me to put her on a couple jacks. So when the flop came out with two jacks and a Ten, with 8s9s I had an open ended straight. The turn, another spade, brought me more outs that were in reality all dead. She gave me the right odds to call and when I hit my flush, I thought I was good. She value bet her quads and I had paid her off. I definitely put her on a Jack but not quads. Oh well, a hand like that should get paid off. I don't think I played that one bad but I just ran into some bad luck.
As the night progressed, I was down to my last $22 but made a comeback with pocket 5s on a scare board that showed all clubs. I knew if I got called, I was losing. But nobody called.
Next all-in moment came when I called a raise with 4 others in the pot with AJo. I flopped top pair and went all-in with $38 and got no callers. I was on my way back to getting back to even.
Then two hands later, I got priced in with J9o in the small blind and made the call with 6 players. I flopped the absolute nuts(8TQ-rainbow). Being in the small blind along with my tight image, I checked. This guy to my right is quite aggressive with any type of hand, so I got another reason to check. So UTG guy bets out and got two callers, including the guy to my right. Awesome...I'm getting more dead money into the pot. Turn - 3c. No help and no flush draws either. I'm still sitting pretty with my straight. I check. The UTG bets out and chases out the other two bettors and it comes back to me. I examine my stack and wondered if I should go all-in or just call. So I posture a little and count out my stack and also take a look at how much I'd have left to potentially call on the river. I call. A 9 comes out on the river which pretty much was a scare card for my opponent. Now all kinds of hands I could have been check calling would have made it and I knew if I checked, he'd check behind me. So I had to bet first. I didn't have much left but I felt the right amount had to be a little less than an all-in. I bet $25 into about $95 pot. I felt it was about right. I'm giving him almost 5:1 on his money to call. He smiled figuring I had the Jack and called. I showed him my cards and I slow played the nuts the entire time.
That hand catapulted me into the black by about $40 - which coincidentally was for the most part contributed to the dead money with two callers on the flop.
Of course all my profits and stack went to shit about 30 minutes later. I was in late middle position with AJo. It was min-raised and min-re-raised to $4. I called and the small blind raised it up to $6. He wanted to see how strong his hand was. I noticed that everyone who called the min-raise called. Action was back to me. There was already about $40 in the pot with nobody showing any kind of real strength. So my only options were to fold or go all-in. IMO, I considered the dead $40 just waiting for an owner. So I took the rest of my chips and went all in which was around $140 more. Everyone, like I expected, dropped out like flies. Until it got to the host. He sat there trying to figure out what kind of hand I had. He pondered for a good minute thinking he felt lucky and ultimately made the call. He showed A8 and I turned up AJ. Apparently, I made other people fold 99 and JJ due to my tight image. Well, the flop came out Ax8. Well, at that point I wanted to puke but with two jacks gone, I'm drawing to one jack in the deck and of course I didn't get there. But I shrugged it off and said, 'That's poker.' I didn't feel like re-loading for another $100. The host apologized and honestly, I was fine with it. I mean it was a bad call but to get mad about it doesn't do anything but get other people in a bad mood and it doesn't change a damn thing. The last thing I want is to discourage people playing poorly. In a cash game, the good thing is you're never out. You can buy back in with more money and in the long run make it all back. Part of playing poker is making the best decisions and poker all the time. The money will take care of itself in the end. I think I made the right decision in the pot, I could have folded but it was against my intuitions. I would have made my Aces on the flop against the JJ and the 99 and took down the pot anyway. It would have been a coin flip against those pairs and I thought they wouldn't want to gamble the rest of their chips. A couple of those guys already had to re-buy a couple of times already. I didn't think they wanted to tangle with me for all their chips.
So, the thing that I found pretty remarkable was I wasn't as pissed off on the inside as much as I thought I'd be. I'm much better with taking bad beats. I know I with this crew, I'm going to be a long-term winner. Anyway, I think a large part of my attitude was reading the book on being a pro. Bad beats are good for poker. It keeps the poor players keep playing poorly.
So I came down to check it out.
The first game I was in, I lost to a girl who flopped quad jacks. The game was 0.50/1.00 limit. The cap buy-in was $100...pretty standard. Anyway, this girl limped in for a $1 with pocket Jacks. That practically made it impossible for me to put her on a couple jacks. So when the flop came out with two jacks and a Ten, with 8s9s I had an open ended straight. The turn, another spade, brought me more outs that were in reality all dead. She gave me the right odds to call and when I hit my flush, I thought I was good. She value bet her quads and I had paid her off. I definitely put her on a Jack but not quads. Oh well, a hand like that should get paid off. I don't think I played that one bad but I just ran into some bad luck.
As the night progressed, I was down to my last $22 but made a comeback with pocket 5s on a scare board that showed all clubs. I knew if I got called, I was losing. But nobody called.
Next all-in moment came when I called a raise with 4 others in the pot with AJo. I flopped top pair and went all-in with $38 and got no callers. I was on my way back to getting back to even.
Then two hands later, I got priced in with J9o in the small blind and made the call with 6 players. I flopped the absolute nuts(8TQ-rainbow). Being in the small blind along with my tight image, I checked. This guy to my right is quite aggressive with any type of hand, so I got another reason to check. So UTG guy bets out and got two callers, including the guy to my right. Awesome...I'm getting more dead money into the pot. Turn - 3c. No help and no flush draws either. I'm still sitting pretty with my straight. I check. The UTG bets out and chases out the other two bettors and it comes back to me. I examine my stack and wondered if I should go all-in or just call. So I posture a little and count out my stack and also take a look at how much I'd have left to potentially call on the river. I call. A 9 comes out on the river which pretty much was a scare card for my opponent. Now all kinds of hands I could have been check calling would have made it and I knew if I checked, he'd check behind me. So I had to bet first. I didn't have much left but I felt the right amount had to be a little less than an all-in. I bet $25 into about $95 pot. I felt it was about right. I'm giving him almost 5:1 on his money to call. He smiled figuring I had the Jack and called. I showed him my cards and I slow played the nuts the entire time.
That hand catapulted me into the black by about $40 - which coincidentally was for the most part contributed to the dead money with two callers on the flop.
Of course all my profits and stack went to shit about 30 minutes later. I was in late middle position with AJo. It was min-raised and min-re-raised to $4. I called and the small blind raised it up to $6. He wanted to see how strong his hand was. I noticed that everyone who called the min-raise called. Action was back to me. There was already about $40 in the pot with nobody showing any kind of real strength. So my only options were to fold or go all-in. IMO, I considered the dead $40 just waiting for an owner. So I took the rest of my chips and went all in which was around $140 more. Everyone, like I expected, dropped out like flies. Until it got to the host. He sat there trying to figure out what kind of hand I had. He pondered for a good minute thinking he felt lucky and ultimately made the call. He showed A8 and I turned up AJ. Apparently, I made other people fold 99 and JJ due to my tight image. Well, the flop came out Ax8. Well, at that point I wanted to puke but with two jacks gone, I'm drawing to one jack in the deck and of course I didn't get there. But I shrugged it off and said, 'That's poker.' I didn't feel like re-loading for another $100. The host apologized and honestly, I was fine with it. I mean it was a bad call but to get mad about it doesn't do anything but get other people in a bad mood and it doesn't change a damn thing. The last thing I want is to discourage people playing poorly. In a cash game, the good thing is you're never out. You can buy back in with more money and in the long run make it all back. Part of playing poker is making the best decisions and poker all the time. The money will take care of itself in the end. I think I made the right decision in the pot, I could have folded but it was against my intuitions. I would have made my Aces on the flop against the JJ and the 99 and took down the pot anyway. It would have been a coin flip against those pairs and I thought they wouldn't want to gamble the rest of their chips. A couple of those guys already had to re-buy a couple of times already. I didn't think they wanted to tangle with me for all their chips.
So, the thing that I found pretty remarkable was I wasn't as pissed off on the inside as much as I thought I'd be. I'm much better with taking bad beats. I know I with this crew, I'm going to be a long-term winner. Anyway, I think a large part of my attitude was reading the book on being a pro. Bad beats are good for poker. It keeps the poor players keep playing poorly.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
cooler magnet
Well, I've been on a general losing streak. After two months without a refill, I finally had to last night. Since I've been playing at the $50+ sng, I had to put in for $200.
Anyway, lately, I've been getting more aggressive with a short stack. Normally, when the blinds are at $50/$100, I used to play the same tight game. However, if I'm at below $1500 mark, I only have 15 BB left. Now I wouldn't panic yet, but the next level is $75/$150. So I need to start stealing and if unsuccessful, I'm in all-in/fold mode.
Well, so when I find myself short stacked, I've been going all in with any ace usually. Depending on the table, I'd also go in with suited connectors and hands I feel that would call and dominate me. So hands like K4 or K8 are hands I avoid.
Anyway, I end up going all in a lot more now and I find myself constantly running into coolers - meaning Aces, Kings or Queens. I don't know why I find myself running into these hands. I feel it shouldn't happen as often as it has.
10:18 PM:
Well, I just layed down a monster pot with QQ. Someone in early position raised and I called. I was reading about how not to telegraph your hands by re-raising pre-flop. So I just flat called the initial raiser. However, the seat to my left re-raised (from 60 to 220). So the initial raiser folded. I called as well. So the flop comes out K-K-7. I pause and check. Raiser checks behind me. Turn card - 4. I bet about 300 into the 600 pot. The raiser now goes over the top and goes all in.
I figure my Queens are beat by either A-K or Aces. I doubt if he flopped quads, he'd go all in. But I feel he didn't have A-K because he'd flop trips and I'd be drawing to two outs - why scare me out? I think he had Aces. I think he'd was willing to go broke with that hand had I had A-K. Aces make the most sense because he raised so much pre-flop and then went all in on the turn.
10:46 PM
Well, got knocked out by another donkey. I had about 1300 in chips and the blinds at 50/100. The donkey on the button raised with Ad3d. I had AcKc. He raised it to 300 and after thinking about it, I went all in. He insta-called. I was in great shape to double up after seeing his 3d being dominated. However, the flop brought 2 diamonds. Of COURSE!!! The turn brought the Kd. Pokerstars had to make it painful.
That was the end of me. It's exactly those kinds of hands that make me really wonder if online poker isn't fixed.
Oh well, I should go to bed now.
Anyway, lately, I've been getting more aggressive with a short stack. Normally, when the blinds are at $50/$100, I used to play the same tight game. However, if I'm at below $1500 mark, I only have 15 BB left. Now I wouldn't panic yet, but the next level is $75/$150. So I need to start stealing and if unsuccessful, I'm in all-in/fold mode.
Well, so when I find myself short stacked, I've been going all in with any ace usually. Depending on the table, I'd also go in with suited connectors and hands I feel that would call and dominate me. So hands like K4 or K8 are hands I avoid.
Anyway, I end up going all in a lot more now and I find myself constantly running into coolers - meaning Aces, Kings or Queens. I don't know why I find myself running into these hands. I feel it shouldn't happen as often as it has.
10:18 PM:
Well, I just layed down a monster pot with QQ. Someone in early position raised and I called. I was reading about how not to telegraph your hands by re-raising pre-flop. So I just flat called the initial raiser. However, the seat to my left re-raised (from 60 to 220). So the initial raiser folded. I called as well. So the flop comes out K-K-7. I pause and check. Raiser checks behind me. Turn card - 4. I bet about 300 into the 600 pot. The raiser now goes over the top and goes all in.
I figure my Queens are beat by either A-K or Aces. I doubt if he flopped quads, he'd go all in. But I feel he didn't have A-K because he'd flop trips and I'd be drawing to two outs - why scare me out? I think he had Aces. I think he'd was willing to go broke with that hand had I had A-K. Aces make the most sense because he raised so much pre-flop and then went all in on the turn.
10:46 PM
Well, got knocked out by another donkey. I had about 1300 in chips and the blinds at 50/100. The donkey on the button raised with Ad3d. I had AcKc. He raised it to 300 and after thinking about it, I went all in. He insta-called. I was in great shape to double up after seeing his 3d being dominated. However, the flop brought 2 diamonds. Of COURSE!!! The turn brought the Kd. Pokerstars had to make it painful.
That was the end of me. It's exactly those kinds of hands that make me really wonder if online poker isn't fixed.
Oh well, I should go to bed now.
Monday, May 21, 2007
making the jump
Well, I've been trying the higher limits lately at pokerstars. I've been playing either the $50 or $100 sit-n-gos lately. I've had moderate success so far.
Last night, I should have placed in the money in the $50 game. I was on the comeback from being the short stack. I've employed a "fold or all-in" method when I 10 BB or less. Which means I would have to go all in at around $1000 in chips when the blinds are at $50 and $100. Sounds a little early to do such things but hey, it's correct tournament play.
Anyway, back to the $50 game. I was doubling up a few times and was up there in chips now. Second in chips - 4 handed. I got dealt pocket Queens. A very strong hand. One of the players goes all in and the chip leader also goes all-in. I call his all-in with my ladies. The chip leader shows pocket Jacks and I'm looking real good to double up and be the massive chip leader but he ends up spiking a Jack on the river to knock me out at 4th place. I'm wondering if I should have called his all in. I can't imagine folding the queens being the correct play. If any professionals reading this can comment please do so....lol
Okay, so I play the $100 and again go out on the bubble. So I drop down to the $30 and take first place. So now I recoup my loss at the $100 games.
I just got an email last night from pokerstars that my account has elevated to SilverStar status. Not too sure what that means yet but that's due to having played a bunch of 50 and 100 dollar sit-n-gos. I'd be interested in what kinds of benefits I get now.
That's it for now. Btw-I think I'm going to pass on the $1500 game (Event #3 at the WSOP). I'm going to spend more time on the Double shootouts online for the main event. I'm planning on buying an iMac this summer when the new line gets released. However, pokerstars hasn't created a mac compatible version yet.
Last night, I should have placed in the money in the $50 game. I was on the comeback from being the short stack. I've employed a "fold or all-in" method when I 10 BB or less. Which means I would have to go all in at around $1000 in chips when the blinds are at $50 and $100. Sounds a little early to do such things but hey, it's correct tournament play.
Anyway, back to the $50 game. I was doubling up a few times and was up there in chips now. Second in chips - 4 handed. I got dealt pocket Queens. A very strong hand. One of the players goes all in and the chip leader also goes all-in. I call his all-in with my ladies. The chip leader shows pocket Jacks and I'm looking real good to double up and be the massive chip leader but he ends up spiking a Jack on the river to knock me out at 4th place. I'm wondering if I should have called his all in. I can't imagine folding the queens being the correct play. If any professionals reading this can comment please do so....lol
Okay, so I play the $100 and again go out on the bubble. So I drop down to the $30 and take first place. So now I recoup my loss at the $100 games.
I just got an email last night from pokerstars that my account has elevated to SilverStar status. Not too sure what that means yet but that's due to having played a bunch of 50 and 100 dollar sit-n-gos. I'd be interested in what kinds of benefits I get now.
That's it for now. Btw-I think I'm going to pass on the $1500 game (Event #3 at the WSOP). I'm going to spend more time on the Double shootouts online for the main event. I'm planning on buying an iMac this summer when the new line gets released. However, pokerstars hasn't created a mac compatible version yet.
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