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Archive for July, 2010

July

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

Hmph, not great.

$140 lost, third month in a row of losses :-(

I’m tired now of saying that it’s this leak or that leak or it’s all tilt etc. What it’s really feeling like is that it’s all just luck. Some days I get cards, other days I don’t. It’s not suck-outs, bad beats, or river rats – it’s more like sometimes you hit your set when they hit TP, and sometimes you don’t.

My records go back exactly two years now (I’ve probably been playing for three years, but it was a while before I discovered pokertracker & hold’em manager). So I decided to do a lifetime audit;

I’ve played 180k hands (48k in tournaments).
The total winnings (tourney + cash) is -$152.
rackback + bonuses have come to $534.

Final total $381.

However my accounts are a lot less than that, as I had to cash out my entire roll last summer, plus I’ve just taken a share backing BWOP for some live tournaments (Newff had to pull out of his unfortunately). Not sure what to make of it really, other than it’s good to be +ve but somehow still depressing it’s not come from being any good at poker.

180

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

Played 6max for a few hours and was down, then up, then down, then back to zero. About the only thing that lessened the futility of it was that my all-in ev line was way up, but then Sklansky bucks doesn’t get too many cheeseburgers.

So I had a look at the tourneys to see what was happening, and a $3 180man rebuy was about to fill so I jumped in. Figured it’d be good for something to do while the Grand Prix was on.

While waiting for it to start I filtered my HEM onto MTTs that were 180 entrants or more, and was amazed to see that out of the dozen or so I’d played I’d cashed in 30%! They were almost all $2 games, usually all for the same reason I’d entered this $3 game (killing time basically). None of them had cashed that high, but it was almost $100 profit, which is pretty sweet for $2 games (ok, not that sweet considering they were MTTs, but it’s still a nice ROI of 180%).

Since this $3 game was a rebuy obviously the first 30 minutes was a ridiculous shovefest. I kinda stayed out of it until the last minute and put a few of my own shoves in before getting the add-on (didn’t go my way of course, so started after the break with what the minimum – or should be the minimum, it’s surprising how many people didn’t rebuy or add-on though, so really I wasn’t in bad shape). It occured to me that rebuys make for a low rake game – I’d always steered clear of them, but it makes sense to me now.

I had a reasonable run and moved up to roughly top third of stacks, then did this;

No Limit Holdem Tournament
Pokerstars
7 Players

$3.00+$0.30

Stacks:
UTG (4,990)
UTG+1 (7,390)
MP (25,675)
CO (10,370)
BTN (20,300)
SB (12,765)
Hero (32,130)

Blinds: 400/800 Ante 75

Pre-Flop: (1,725, 7 players) Hero is BB Qhearts poker card Aspades poker card
4 folds, BTN raises to 3,200, 1 fold, Hero raises to 7,200, BTN calls 4,000

Flop: 9spades poker card Khearts poker card 4diamonds poker card (15,325, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN goes all-in 13,025, Hero calls 13,025

Turn: 8hearts poker card (41,375, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: Qspades poker card (41,375, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 41,375
Hero shows a pair of Queens
Qhearts poker card Aspades poker card
BTN shows high card Ace
7diamonds poker card Aclubs poker card

Hero wins 41,375 (net +21,075)

BTN lost 20,300

Insane, or genius read? Figured there were far more bluffs in his range than actually hitting that king (um, didn’t really consider the possibility of PPs though, which was a mistake really). Really I should have played it as a stop and go, and donk-shoved the flop (I’m not that brave though).

Anyway, that put me as chipleader. I maintained it more or less until we were ITM. It then faded a bit and I finally go to the final table as the middle stack – even though many of us were still reasonably deep (kinda, M’s > 8 at least) the play was very aggressive and I hadn’t anything that stood up in even a small way.

I tried one raise from the CO which got shoved on and I folded. I was then down to an M of 3 and this happened;

No Limit Holdem Tournament
PokerStars
9 Players

$3.00+$0.30

Stacks:
UTG (53k)
UTG+1 (184k)
Hero (53k)
MP2 (39k)
MP3 (121k)
CO (112k)
BTN (102k)
SB (23k)
BB (212k)

Blinds: 4k/8k Ante 800

Pre-Flop: (19k, 9 players) Hero is MP1 10hearts poker card Kdiamonds poker card
2 folds, Hero raises to 24k, 2 folds, CO goes all-in 111k, 3 folds, Hero goes all-in 28k

Flop: 4spades poker card Jdiamonds poker card 9spades poker card (183k, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: Jhearts poker card (183k, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: 3clubs poker card (183k, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 183k
Hero shows a pair of Jacks
10hearts poker card Kdiamonds poker card
CO shows four of a kind, Jacks
Jclubs poker card Jspades poker card

CO wins 183k (net +70k)

Hero lost 53k

so I went out as 9th with a little win of $29. So frustrating when the big prize of $500 was only 8 seats away and I’d just beat 171 other people to get there. I then kicked myself even harder when I realised the SB would be totally fucked after paying the BB and if I’d only waited another orbit I’d have doubled my prize (in my dreams maybe, much more likely is that the little shit would have doubled up).

Mexican Standoff

Sunday, July 25th, 2010
$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
Pokerstars
6 Players

Stacks:
Hero ($12.27)
UTG+1 ($10)
CO ($10.15)
BTN ($10)
SB ($12.19)
BB ($14.98)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 6 players) Hero is UTG 10diamonds poker card 3hearts poker card
Hero folds, 1 fold, CO raises to $0.40, BTN raises to $1.10, SB calls $1.05, BB calls $1, CO calls $0.70

Flop: 10spades poker card Kclubs poker card Adiamonds poker card ($4.40, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, CO checks, BTN checks

Turn: 2clubs poker card ($4.40, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, CO checks, BTN checks

River: 5hearts poker card ($4.40, 4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, CO bets $1.50, BTN calls $1.50, SB folds, BB folds

Final Pot: $7.40
CO shows a pair of Queens
Qdiamonds poker card Qhearts poker card
BTN shows a pair of Kings
Kspades poker card Qclubs poker card

BTN wins $7.05 (net +$4.45)

CO lost $2.60
SB lost $1.10
BB lost $1.10

There Are Only 3 Possible Actions: Fold, Call and Shove

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

So I’ve kind of given up on the small ball idea. There’s just too much reraising and spewing going on and to believe that you have any control over the pot is a bit self-deluding.

Nevertheless, I seem to be doing ok despite what this chart looks like;

The dive downwards was the spewy aggrotard mood that I mentioned in the last post. Autostealing every blind and easily knocking everyone off their hand had made me a bit slaphappy, plus I really saw the $10 stacks as more or less worthless and so stacked off too light too many times.

So yesterday I returned to taking things a bit more seriously and thought that I needed to force myself to just ignore the 4 buy-in spew since it was going to take quite a few hands to climb back up. Somehow though I hit hand after hand and everyone seemed happy to throw their stacks at me. So I managed to win it back in less hands than I lost it, an incredible swing really.

Single tabling is still enjoyable (well obv when stacks are flying like this), being able to chat while playing is fun and action hasn’t been so slow as get boring. No desire to add a second table yet, and even if I did I think even one more table would negate the whole reason I decided to single table. I just imagine myself playing live and it all seems reasonable.

Still A Feeder

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

6max sessions not going so well. Lost a couple of buy-ins, and then tonight I was just bored and messing around (opened about 40% of my hands).

At the end of the session I’d lost 3 buy-ins due to 3 big hands going against me (one was a bad bluff, the other two were preflops flips that didn’t go my way). Without those 3 hands I still would have only broke even, despite my redline taking a full buy-in. I have a knack for being able to fold opponents out (I’m not just talking about that flop cbet obvious stuff, but manipulating them on turn & river), but I can’t make my value hands pay off (plus I occasionally get it in too light and can’t win a flip). I dunno, guess I still can’t play poker.

As it is, the BR is looking really bad now. Going busto is starting to look on the cards unless I have an epiphany soon…

Reboot

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

I’ve decided on yet another change on direction. HU was a lot of fun, especially when I hit the $1k BR mark, but having fallen back down to a few hundred $$$ it’d become hard to tell what was luck and what was me :-(

Despite the rise and fall, there is a silver lining that I’ve learnt a lot of poker during the process. HU makes you really concentrate on the personality of your opponent. You’re constantly watching his lines looking for repeated habits and weaknesses. Then you’re thinking about how exploit those habits – how to change your range & how to change your betsizing.

Then the other way HU has improved my game is that you have to single table (multitabling HU is just one big headfuck). A lot less autopiloting, a lot more going over earlier streets & hands before taking your action.

So with that experience under my belt I’ve decided to return to 6max, and with a strategy that will sound incredibly unprofitable to many;

First, I’m actually going to aim at a low bb/100. Previously I embraced the No Limit element of NLHE a bit too much – playing for stacks was the only way to play. I think I was over-doing it way too much. I would build a big stack through redline play and lose it all + more with top pair medium kicker all-in donk plays. End result – losing player.
So by aiming for a low bb/100 what I mean is to play a lot more conservatively, being very very cautious about building big pots (esp all-ins), and build a stack 5bb at a time. Small ball I guess.

Secondly, I’m going to single table! I learnt nothing during the periods I multitabled 6max, I just autopiloted very basic moves (pfr, cbet) with very little consideration for my opponent’s character, and some days I did ok, most days I didn’t.

So single tabling & small ball sounds like it’s going to be a really low $/hour, but I don’t care – now it’s going to be all about the poker rather than the $$$. They’re not the same things, even though we keep score by the money we win.

———————-

A little extra; remember my post earlier where I said I was backing Newff a tiny % of his buy-in for the Calgary Open? He still needs more backers – the event usually has < 100 entries, with ITM being 18k (slightly over 3xbuy-in) & 1st place $100k. He has to beat 3 people to be ITM, and he’s a solid player at the $100 husngs.

So if any of you have a few $$$ to spare (my share was just $60), here’s the link again; http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/163/staking-selling-shares/2010-candian-poker-open-5k-heads-up-main-event-shares-823965/

Having a Heater is Bad for your Health

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

A couple of posts ago I said I wasn’t losing too badly, just losing out to rake since I couldn’t get past 50% ITM. Well I checked my stats a bit closer and turns out I am losing so far this month;

Most of it is shitty win one, lose one zigzagginess. None of it seems to bear any relation to whether my opponents were any good or not, even the fools who check every button won their fair share. One of them today made an awesome laydown though;

No Limit Holdem Tournament
2 Players

Stacks:
SB (1,640)
Hero (1,360)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB Aclubs poker card 6clubs poker card
SB raises to 60, Hero calls 40

Flop: 5clubs poker card 10spades poker card Jhearts poker card (120, 2 players)
Hero bets 80, SB calls 80

Turn: Kclubs poker card (280, 2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets 20, Hero calls 20

River: 9clubs poker card (320, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in 1,200, SB folds

Final Pot: 1,520
SB shows
Adiamonds poker card Qhearts poker card

Hero wins 1,520 (net +160)

SB lost 160

Admittedly shoving that river seems remarkably spewy since there aren’t many hands that would call, and he was also extremely passive – but that passivity was so extreme that I was convinced he really really liked his hand (I know turn bet was small, but *any* turn bet after he called was big strength from this guy). He tanked for quite a while before folding. I dunno if I would have had that strength…

That game was annoying in the end because I had him pinned down to < 500 chips for ages and he kept on clinging on, winning some flips back to equal stacks and then my 66 lost to his AK.

Here's another hand that shocked me. Different player, this time someone who raised their buttons and you'd expect more regular lines. Maybe flat calling a 3bet pre with aces is a much better move that 4betting or shoving?

No Limit Holdem Tournament
2 Players

$10.00+$0.50

Stacks:
SB (1,150)
Hero (1,850)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB 10clubs poker card 10spades poker card
SB raises to 60, Hero raises to 180, SB calls 120

Flop: 4clubs poker card 8clubs poker card 9spades poker card (360, 2 players)
Hero bets 180, SB calls 180

Turn: 9diamonds poker card (720, 2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets 340, Hero calls 340

River: 6hearts poker card (1,400, 2 players)
Hero bets 200, SB raises to 440, Hero calls 240

Final Pot: 2,280
SB shows two pair, Aces and Nines
Aclubs poker card Adiamonds poker card
Hero shows
10clubs poker card 10spades poker card

SB wins 2,280 (net +1,140)

Hero lost 1,140

Anyway, to the point of the title of this post – essentially I had two heaters this year, one at $10 games and the other at $30. The money from the $30s is blown away now, and my wins show I’m back to the point after the 4man $10s heater. It’s a pretty solid decline for the last 3 months. Those heaters raised my expectations, and it’s painful facing the reality that I’m not really winning at heads up.

I wish I knew where the holes are in my game. It was a lot more fun when I was winning…


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