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February

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

February husngs was looking pretty good until I decided that I needed to take some higher shots. I tried a $30 game, followed by some $20s and they all went bad. So today I covered some of those losses with $10 4man shootouts and did pretty well, getting back almost $100’s worth. That’s still short of where I had been but it’s no big deal – it’s important to take these shots. I’ve seen a bunch of people on the forums who’ve played thousands of games at the $10s and less who just fail to move up (they ask questions like ‘is 100 buy-ins nitty?’). Those $20 games didn’t seem much harder, but lose 5 in a row and the BR hit is still hard to take. Hopefully next month a shot will stay solid and I’ll be in the $20 zone properly (I’m already rolled for it, but to blow it all so I *have* to play $10s would ruin my day too much).

Less said about the cash games the better. As I said before, not going back there ever again (well, apart from the inevitable HU cash games I guess);

Feel free to shoot the ducks…

January Results

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Half good, half bad month.

The bad was my cash games – I started out the month after some in depth revision of my play, and came to the conclusion I was pushing too hard with paired hands (not PP) – overvaluing them and trying to get too much value. I was doing well at all-in play, and making good value out of 2pair+ hands, but the weaker made hands were wiping out those gains.

So I trimmed down my game and initially it seemed to be working – a nice 12 buy-in climb. It then collapsed dramatically, and to be honest I’m still not sure why;

At the bottom of that dive Full Tilt bought out Rush Poker, and I instantly switched, lured in by the appeal of big rakeback and racking up a large volume of hands. I’m not a big volume player, and the idea of boosting the number of hands was to reduce variance, but somehow I became swingier then ever. I possibly could have worked my way back to zero, but I was dispirited with the whole thing. My new year’s resolution was to not care about the limits I play, and just go with my bankroll, which is still fine, but it hurt to be within $8 of moving down to NL5 :-(

However  at that point I switched to HUSNGs. Which was the good half of the month :-D

For some reason I’ve been unstoppable – $5 buy-in games went fine, enough to give me confidence with the $10s. I then won 75% of $10 games – 17/23! Yesterday I tried some $20 games (not january I know), and won 2/3, so early days there – however the cash profit from these is astounding. Furthermore I’m not feeling bad (much) when I lose a match, not like when I’ve just spewed 4 buy-ins at NL10 – however that could be because I’m on a winning streak, sooo I’m not going to make too much of that right now.

Final gains: $120 including rakeback. $70 without rb – have to admit, rush poker did win in that respect!

February I’m concentrating on HU. Maybe this is a turning point in what kind of game I play, we’ll have to see…

ps. forgot to mention 21st in the WBCOOP main event as well :-)

Also got two weeks of stox from trulyfree, better get watching some vids I guess!

WBCOOP Main Event

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Nuts all the way :-)

NL Holdem $20(BB) Poker Stars
SB ($2,450)
BB ($2,408)
UTG ($2,470)
UTG+1 ($2,470)
UTG+2 ($2,470)
MP1 ($2,460)
MP2 ($2,807)
CO ($2,440)
Hero ($2,525)

Dealt to Hero Tdiamonds poker card Kdiamonds poker card

UTG raises to $80, fold, fold, fold, MP2 calls $80, fold, Hero calls $80, fold, BB calls $60

FLOP ($330) Jdiamonds poker card Adiamonds poker card Qclubs poker card

BB checks, UTG bets $200, MP2 raises to $560, Hero calls $560, BB folds, UTG folds

TURN ($1,650) Jdiamonds poker card Adiamonds poker card Qclubs poker card 7hearts poker card

MP2 bets $750, Hero calls $750

RIVER ($3,150) Jdiamonds poker card Adiamonds poker card Qclubs poker card 7hearts poker card 6diamonds poker card

MP2 bets $820, Hero raises to $1,135 (AI), MP2 calls $315

MP2 shows Jspades poker card Aspades poker card
(Pre 61%, Flop 17.3%, Turn 9.1%)

Hero shows Tdiamonds poker card Kdiamonds poker card
(Pre 39%, Flop 82.7%, Turn 90.9%)

Hero wins $5,420

  • S1ndr0me seems to have fallen asleep, guess he’s not playing. United113 got a good early start too. Haven’t found anyone else yet…
  • Took a stab at a 3way pot, but got check-raised by someone who appeared to be disconnected. Looks like this is going to be it’s usual shove until I die spewfest bingo crap…
  • Found BurnleyMilk – he’s still on a starting stack. Still looking for more compadres – should be more of us around somewhere.
  • So many people sitting out, and so many timeout disconnections :-( Very sloooowww!
  • Bit of stealing, bit of bluffing. Twice avg pot.
  • Damn, all in AK against AJ – boards gets two Jacks. Back down to an average potsize :-(
  • Hit another straight. Not much action though. Chickens.
  • Same idiot with AJ calls down my top pair to hit his ace on the turn. Getting annoyed now :-(
  • Pulled off a bluff for $1000 – maintains me at average stack size (~$3k)
NL Holdem $40(BB) Poker Stars
SB ($5,700)
BB ($5,615)
UTG ($2,215)
UTG+1 ($2,260)
UTG+2 ($2,765)
MP1 ($3,220)
Hero ($3,185)
CO ($2,170)
BTN ($640)

Dealt to Hero Tdiamonds poker card Adiamonds poker card

fold, UTG+1 calls $40, UTG+2 calls $40, MP1 calls $40, Hero raises to $200, fold, BTN raises to $640 (AI), fold, fold, fold, UTG+2 calls $600, fold, Hero calls $440

FLOP ($2,060) Thearts poker card 3hearts poker card Tspades poker card

UTG+2 bets $2,125 (AI), Hero calls $2,125

TURN ($6,310) Thearts poker card 3hearts poker card Tspades poker card 6hearts poker card

RIVER ($6,310) Thearts poker card 3hearts poker card Tspades poker card 6hearts poker card 5hearts poker card

UTG+2 shows 2spades poker card 2clubs poker card
(Pre 19%, Flop 7.2%, Turn 4.8%)

Hero shows Tdiamonds poker card Adiamonds poker card
(Pre 27%, Flop 80.7%, Turn 73.8%)

BTN shows Jdiamonds poker card Jhearts poker card
(Pre 54%, Flop 12.1%, Turn 21.4%)

Hero wins $4,250
BTN wins $2,060

  • Nice :-) Shame the shortstack got the flush
  • Damm, lost a weak TP against a set of 5’s
  • Wheee, I hit a set of 5’s and take a $1k pot ($4k stack, $1k ahead of avg)
  • Few more pots, up to a $5k stack, and we go into the first break.

$1.5k ahead of the average stack – things are going ok I guess. At least I’ve seen a bit of action and hit a few hands. Still feels like I’m skirting on the edge of disaster – after the husngs being so straightforward, FR play feels like a crapshoot. Still 1440 players from a field of 2000 – field’s not thinning very quickly unfortunately. Never mind – keep this up and I might just get a $11 tourney ticket :roll:   Anyway, time for a pee (and not into a bottle)

  • Looks like BurnleyMilk took a hit, he’s down to $1.3k :-(   United113 is, like me, on a $5k stack.
  • Cowboys! 3bet the raiser, he folds. Just great. United’s pulling ahead to $6.5k
  • Nice – this irritating leprekahn02 idiot is constantly stealing – I 3bet him from the button, he calls, I cbet and take a nice $800 pot :-D Perhaps the idiot will calm down now
  • United’s storming further ahead – $7k! I’m still $6k, average stack is $3.8k
  • BurnleyMilk’s out. 1359th place. Tough break m8.
  • Leprekahn02 gives me another $1k pot. Mind you, he’s doing well with a $9k pot, so I should be careful of him really.
  • Crap, United113 has taken a hit – he’s down to $1k. I’m still at $6k. Leprekahn is still stealing :x
  • United’s out. 1263rd.
  • Hit a set of 8’s, 3way pot. Wimps all fold – I thought I was overdoing the aggresive image, but obv not. $7k stack, avg = $4k, still over 1k players left (bleh)
  • Found another blogger – Conan776. He’s on $4k which is ok, but judging from his blog he was doing better before the break
  • Guy to my left has been sitting out entire time. Free blinds :-) Otherwise still chipping away. $7k now (avg = $5k). Almost overtaken Leprakahn
  • Last hand before the second break I get QQ. Someone in MP shoves his short $1.5k stack, I shove all-in to fold out the dregs. It holds up (J8o I think), and now I’m $10k, avg $6.5, 785 players left.

Doing well I think – normally I spew out of control in these things. Awesomely Conan776 has knocked out the red pro at his table! No bonus for that I guess? Just kudos :-D

  • Arse. All-in against a $6k stack with AKs – he has AQo. Of course a Q comes up. Down to $3k.
  • Push hard for a few reasonable pots. Up to $5.6K
  • DevlsBnkroll (winner of an earlier wbcoop game this week) has joined our table. $8k stack. On my immediate left. Just great! :-(
  • Haha, I LAG him out of $2k :-D   Stack = $6.6k, avg is $8.8 now though… (yes, LAG is now a verb)
  • Just did a complete donk idiot move! AK in UTG+1, UTG raises & I 3bet, rest of table folds & he calls. Flop is low and dry – he shoves his stack. Now it’s not that big, but still pretty big, $4.5k or so. I put him on a bluff and call – he has TT! I hit a K on the river. Super lucky! Stack now $11k – above the average :-D
  • QTo hits two pair on the flop. Villain with $3k stack leads into me. I’m not sure what to do – two tone flop, my nemesis! So I shove, he folds, I’m happy with that.
  • 500 runners left
  • Wow, DevlsBnkroll is a nit! Wasn’t expecting that… could be dry run of hands perhaps
  • Conan776’s on $11k! Something good happened – I think I just missed it since there’s just gg in the chat box (lol). Wow, it was a royal flush
  • $4k pot from 2nd pair
  • Damn leprekan took me for a $7k pot – I had K9 on a K55 pot. He just let me bet into him… At least I pot controlled myself a little bit (only a little bit tho)
  • Oh no – Conan776’s on $500 – guess it’s game over for him
  • aaaand, he’s out :-(
  • And then I do this to leprekahn :-)
No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players

Stacks:
UTG (10,875)
UTG+1 (17,320)
MP1 (4,235)
MP2 (6,685)
MP3 (9,953)
CO (3,150)
Hero (14,023)
SB (15,312)
BB (5,348)

Blinds: 100/200 Ante 25

Pre-Flop: (525, 9 players) Hero is BTN Jspades poker card Jclubs poker card
4 folds, MP3 raises to 500, 1 fold, Hero raises to 1,500, 2 folds, MP3 calls 1,000

Flop: 2spades poker card 6hearts poker card 2hearts poker card (3,525, 2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets 3,000, MP3 goes all-in 8,428, Hero calls 5,428

Turn: Jhearts poker card (20,381, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 5hearts poker card (20,381, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 20,381
MP3 shows a flush, Queen high
Qdiamonds poker card Qhearts poker card
Hero shows a full house, Jacks full of Deuces
Jspades poker card Jclubs poker card

Hero wins 20,381 (net +10,428)

MP3 lost 9,953

  • Muwahahaha!  $24k stack, almost twice the average.
  • Turns out it was lipaonline that knocked Conan776 out (runner up in an earlier event, 2nd place maybe?). He seemed to have all the tough tables!

3rd break. $26k stack, average $13.8k, 370 runners left. Not a bad run for me really.

  • Raise 55, get shoved over by a $5k stack, folds to me so I call hoping not to see another pair. He has AQ but it hits a straight (see – AQ is hard to beat!). $20k stack, avg is $15k so still ok
  • :-( nits to my right, LAGs to my left. Just great!
  • Looking throught the field, lipaonline is 6th – just how does he do it every time?

Amazing that this still happens this deep;

$200/$400 Ante $50 No Limit Holdem
9 Players

Stacks:
UTG ($4,394)
Hero ($21,774)
MP1 ($9,934)
MP2 ($24,141)
MP3 ($6,608)
CO ($6,195)
BTN ($47,036)
SB ($1,352)
BB ($42,845)

Pre-Flop: ($1,050, 9 players) Hero is UTG+1 7spades poker card 6spades poker card
UTG goes all-in $4,344, Hero folds, MP1 goes all-in $9,884, 3 folds, BTN calls $9,884, 2 folds

Flop: 5clubs poker card 7diamonds poker card 8diamonds poker card ($25,162, 3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: 5diamonds poker card ($25,162, 3 players, 2 all-in)

River: 4diamonds poker card ($25,162, 3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $25,162
UTG shows
Aspades poker card 8spades poker card
MP1 shows
9spades poker card 9diamonds poker card
BTN shows
Jdiamonds poker card Aclubs poker card

BTN wins $25,162 (net +$15,228)

UTG lost $4,394
MP1 lost $9,934

and yes, the winner was the biggest fish at the table…

  • Average stack is catching me up :-( Need to play some hands! Tables getting a bit shove happy tho
  • Just realised people are betting odd amounts, like $2,999 – the spare change creates a huge stack graphic. Pretty good idea, might make some think the bet is bigger than it really is.
  • Thankfully I get the chance, not that I hit any flops but fortunately my opponents have no balls. Two hands go my way and up to $28k, avg at $19k
  • Fish in hand earlier is now chip leader. The name Labschie rings a bell though – maybe he’s not a fish? The hands he’s been playing tho… Hmmm, seems he’s like lipaonline and is one of these pokernews bloggers who don’t blog…
  • Took some money of Labschie, stole a few blinds, stack at $30k, avg $20k, feeling comfortable now to win my $11 tourney ticket (whoohoo)
  • Hmm, he took some back off me, putting his stack over $100k. Good grief…
  • Just realised it’s not an $11 tourney ticket, it’s $22 OMGOMGOMGOMG! Gotta get in the money now!
  • Last hand before the break, and again won a big pot – $12k this time, giving me stack of $32k. Not quite sure how it happened tho – I was on the button, raised for a steal & got 3bet. I called although had a very weak hand – I mainly called because it was obviously a defend from this 31/22 guy. I hit bottom pair on the flop which left me in an awkward spot – he checked though. I put in a 1/2pot raise and he folded. I’d won a pot that was way bigger than I expected. I gotta be careful I think!

4th break. Stack $32k, average $23k, 216 runners left (153 for ITM)

  • 1st hand – $18k pot, AT & hit an A on the flop – bet flop and turn and checked back the river. Villain showed A6. Stupid call from the BB by him really… My stack $41k, not quite twice the average.
  • In a nice spot now – nits to my left. Also guy to my right tried to steal, I 3bet with 66, low flop and I got him to fold which was a nice pot. Not sure I can do that too many times to him though – seems like the kind that would fight back. $49k stack.

Good grief – this is against Labschie;

$350/$700 Ante $85 No Limit Holdem
9 Players

Stacks:
UTG ($47,560)
UTG+1 ($55,929)
MP1 ($36,733)
Hero ($49,088)
MP3 ($27,643)
CO ($32,055)
BTN ($8,545)
SB ($25,084)
BB ($80,094)

Pre-Flop: ($1,815, 9 players) Hero is MP2 Khearts poker card Jspades poker card
3 folds, Hero raises to $2,100, 4 folds, BB calls $1,400

Flop: 5spades poker card 7spades poker card 7hearts poker card ($5,315, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2,700, BB calls $2,700

Turn: Aclubs poker card ($10,715, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $5,700, BB calls $5,700

River: 9clubs poker card ($22,115, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: $22,115
BB shows
Kspades poker card 4spades poker card
Hero shows
Khearts poker card Jspades poker card

Hero wins $22,115 (net +$11,530)

BB lost $10,585

  • Then my TT stood up, so now on $65k, 10th place out of 193 runners

OMG!!! I get 33 on the button, labschie limps so I give a good raise. He reraises though, so I shove, thinking ‘wtf, I’m tired, I have him covered (just), if I lose I still might make it to the tickets (only a few to go out). He calls with AA.

The flop, turn and river sloowly eek out into a fuck’in 4567 straight!!!

I’m 2nd place in chips – $106k! 160 runners left. Wow, awesome suckout :-D

  • A misclick loses me $10k – I thought I was clicking bet to steal the blinds, but someone had already raised – duh. Down to 6th place. Still not ITM yet! C’mon!!!
  • ok, tables are synchronising – one more poor fool to go out and we can start playing poker again. Smallest stack is about 2 orbits, so might take a while
  • ITM
  • Bit of a card drought :-(

Another break. God I wish I hadn’t drank that bottle of wine earlier – I’ve a headache, it’s work tomorrow, it’s 1am. Oh well, let’s keep going. Stack’s $102k, 5th place out of 127, which means another 64 players to go out before my ticket goes up to $55. How many more hours? God knows…

  • Still card dead. C’mon, c’mon…
  • Hmm, made a couple of really bad plays and donked off $25k. Tiredness and frustration at no decent hole cards. Ok, slap in the face, concentrate, don’t be a donk.
  • Another pot lost – JT in early position (I know, I know), btn calls. A J arrives on the turn, but the river brings a possible straight if he has 87. How likely is that? I decide to check-call. Of course he has it… Stack $46k – less than the avg stack. 93 left in – need another 30 to go out. Gonna be close I think unless I can win a reasonable pot
  • Call a $10k stack’s shove with AT. He has QQ and it holds. I’m 54th out of 88. A couple of blinds come my way, but it feels miserable
  • Someone called JBug40 has the most gorgeous avatar ever! Although she has a bit of a strong chin? Hope I’m not doing a crying game there
  • AKs, I 3bet, they fold. Half way down the field now. Should make it to the $55 ticket, now 16 players need to go out.
  • UTG to my right shoves his $20k stack. I have 55??? It’s early position and too many to act after me, and that’s half my stack. I fold – it goes round the table and someone calls. He had 99 – phew!
  • Conan776 still railing! Hope it’s not too dull man!
  • KK on the button. Get a nice bundle from Jbug (not to showdown unfortunately)
  • Straight away another $28k pot as KT hits TPGK. Now 20th out of 67, above average stack – easily into the next bigger prize
  • A nice run of cards at last – a couple of AJ’s, and into 18th. Tables sync as we wait for one more idiot to fall
  • Play the most bizarre line ever against a big stack – folded to me in the SB, I check, he think and raise, I call and check-raise the monotone flop. I think he just folds out of confusion
  • Hit TPTK, and get a nice $40k pot – 8th out of 64 now. Still waiting for that last idiot! And it looks like it’s going to be our table as loads of ppl shove! 44 beats AK, but no-one goes out
  • Hit a set, but no action. The idiot has gone, I now have a $55 ticket

Another break. Why’s this on a Sunday?!?

  • Hooray, another person sitting out to my left – free blinds!
  • Oh, he woke up :-(
  • Table’s become very tight. So dull! So I start randomly splashing around raises, particularly effective from utg, utg+1 – up to 9th now. Hope they’re not reading this
  • 7th
  • ah, messed up – tangled with the guy on my right, realising only afterwards he was a nit and the flop hit his range really hard – I folded river, but should have folded pre, or on the flop. Back to 11th
  • And a bigger mess. Guy two places to my left never makes sense. He plays it just like a FD, then calls a big river bet with bottom pair? Of course I had nothing, but that’s not the point
  • Had a nice semi bluff with 33. People seem to be folding ok
  • 6 more to go out for $215 ticket!
  • Mass all-in knocks two people out! I get moved to a new table with new strange people who haven’t seen my manic play yet. Cool!
  • Which fails instantly as I throw $70k at someone (half my stack!). Oh well :-) Half way down the field again.
  • won a couple of reasonable pots, plus some blinds. Not really moved up the field much, but at least I’ve kept my stack up with the joneses – 2 players to go out for next prize up :-)
  • 1 more to go out. After that I’m not sure if I can stay awake. Lots of shoving going on the other tables, but the shortstacks keep doubling up.

And now we’re on a break…

  • So I take the last guy out myself on a lucky T4o call hitting a 4. Shortie was btn and raised, I called expecting the BB to also call and we’d check it down. But he folded, duh. Still, lucky result. Now have $216 ticket.
  • Took someone else out with A8s. Good grief – the next prize up is $2k! I guess I’ve got to keep going – I’m 11th at the moment, 23 to go out
  • Picked up a few more shortstacks. Now 7th. Too tired to blog much really
  • QQ, flop has a K and I get cold feet checking the turn. That lets the other guys flush in :-( Down to 21st out of 27 – need 17 to go out to win $2k, feels a bit like a long shot in a way
  • I’m too tired. I shove KJs against a bigger stack. I get my flush. I’m now 9th – it won’t let me go

Ah, then I finally get in trouble – I get 3bet and I call. Flop is low, but a bit connected. I go for a checkraise (I just have overcards), but realise the pot is too big, and all I can do is minraise. He thinks then shoves, and I decide to fold. It left me very low in the field – very careless!

Immediately the next hand is AQs – I reraised by a bigstack and I go all-in. He has 44 and it holds up. Game over.

So, a $215 SCOOP ticket. I’ve no idea what that means, but I’m too tired to find out now. I might play it rather than cash it, since right now it’s not money or even bankroll – it’s just a ticket. We’ll see.

Anyway, if you’ve been following (and thanks to Conan for railing!), thanks, and good night!

also, in before tl;dr

(pic ‘Borrowed’ from Conan776)

Why Was I Wasting My Time On Cash Games???

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Sooo, husng’s seem to be going well.

Today I played 3 $5 games (accidentally, forgot to look closely enough in the lobby)  – lost one, won the other two.

I then played 9 $10 games (so far). Won 9, lost none :-D   Today’s profit so far is $90! Never ever have I had a winning day like this at cash – not just for the sheer amount of money, but for the relative lack of stress and ease of games! I don’t get it? It can’t be this easy surely?! (it probably isn’t – in my graph below it looks very heaterish :-) )

Anyway – husng history to date (all 6 days of it);

Yesterday I lost 4 out of 6 $10 games which dented my confidence a bit. Mustn’t let today’s unstoppable run go to my head – I should expect a loss soon and shrug it off…


Update: Damn, lost a couple;

;-)

I’m half way through a bottle of wine, so I should stop now. The WBCOOP starts in 45 minutes, and I was going to fill the tedium of that with more sng’s, but perhaps I shouldn’t push my luck.

First 50 HUSNGs

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Completed my first 50 heads up sit ‘n’ go’s. Well, not quite true as I played a handful ages ago, but this is the first 50 since coach Yegor stepped in and pushed me up to $5 games (actually he said $10s, but being the timid fool that I am I wanted to paddle a bit first).

Results – 33 won, 18 lost (51 total) – ROI: 23%, total win: $62

So, now onto the $10’s I guess. I’m still having trouble seeing the big picture and get a twinge of depression when I lose a game – it’s a long term thing, gotta remember that.

Current sharkscope is;

HUSNG’s are the second half of games played (prior to that is 2 years of randomly having a go at a 6max SNG now and again). Onwards and upwards…

My Go At Rush Poker

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Finally got round to having a go. Since I ran hot I like it :-)

That’s 277 hands in an hour which fits with what FTPDoug said – that’s about two and a half times the normal rate, so awesome for rakeback. Let’s face it – that’s the only way I ever build my roll, so looks like this is my game.

Of course, next time I play I’ll run bad and I’ll decide that Rush poker is a pile of crap. For now though I’m happy enough with it.

Still no confirmation on the Pokerstars WBCOOP. Since this post is going to knock it off the front page I’ll post the link stuff here again…


Online PokerI have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 930826


Update: lol, I still like rush poker :-D

I upped it to two tables, and found I could cope with the speed. Possibly if I was using a proper mouse and not my laptop pad thing I could do 3 tables. At least that meant the next hour gave me 700 more hands.

Biggest hand was this one. I was on the verge of folding to what could have been a squeeze, and then realised we were both reasonably deep. Implied odds and all that, so I called. Then my sooooted connectors hit :-D

NL Holdem $0.10(BB) Replayer
SB ($25.11)
BB ($12.38)
UTG ($2.71)
Hero ($18.41)
CO ($24.65)
BTN ($9.60)

Dealt to Hero 7clubs poker card 6clubs poker card

fold, Hero raises to $0.30, CO calls $0.30, fold, SB raises to $1.40, fold, Hero calls $1.10, fold

FLOP ($3.20) 4diamonds poker card 3clubs poker card 5clubs poker card

SB bets $2.10, Hero raises to $5.10, SB raises to $23.71 (AI), Hero calls $11.91 (AI)

TURN ($37.22) 4diamonds poker card 3clubs poker card 5clubs poker card Tspades poker card

RIVER ($37.22) 4diamonds poker card 3clubs poker card 5clubs poker card Tspades poker card 8spades poker card

SB shows Kclubs poker card Khearts poker card
(Pre 79%, Flop 4.9%, Turn 0.0%)

Hero shows 7clubs poker card 6clubs poker card
(Pre 21%, Flop 95.1%, Turn 100.0%)

Hero wins $35.22

Stretching the Legs of Hold’em Manager

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

So after throwing away a bunch of money I decided to leave the tables and do a bit of thinking. The reason was simple enough really – I’d got involved in hands where I’d air or weak holdings and painted myself into a corner. Inevitably either my river bluff would fail or my opponent would put in a raise that I felt pot committed enough to call, and then I’d watch my sweet sweet money disappear into their stack.

Ultimately the thing I’m doing wrong is making my FPS moves too expensive. They might work a lot of the time (honestly!), but I need to recognise when it’s going tits up and give up on that hand earlier while not bloating the pot further.

It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out. In fact I’m too ashamed to post those hands here – they might make you laugh, but I’m not happy about it. However it did get me into the mood of delving into the analysis side of Hold’em Manager and see what it can give me.

I took two periods of my poker ‘career’. Both are NL10, and the first was from April to July last year where I could do no wrong and won $300 over 13,000 hands (21BB/100). The second was my latest 13,000 hands where I’ve won $90 at just under 7BB/100. Nothing wrong with 7BB/100 of course, and the first period looks like a big heater, but it’s still worth a comparison to see if there’s a significant difference somewhere.

I pasted the comparison into a single big image – 21BB/100 on left, latest hands on right;

The first set of boxes is my opening range UTG, MP and CO. I’m kinda pleased with this – I knew that my game has both loosened up and become more aggressive and I was worried that my range had actually become completely wild. It looks fairly well controlled though, and both periods show that I stick to my ranges very solidly (I have no concerns about the lack of balance – what’s the point at NL10 when I rarely play anyone for more than a few hundred hands! That’s also why I’m not worried about publishing it here either, it’s not as if my screen name is meteoric either). As expected my range has widened a bit, mainly at the top end although I’ve also included more suited connectors. The one funny extra is 72o – this is because Ultimate Bet has 72 side bet tables, and it’s worth a quick 3bet or flop cbet with 72o just for this side bet. (Edit – at least, it doesn’t look like it’s gone wild to me, but then I’ve little to compare against. Maybe I shouldn’t loosen up my early position as much as that?)

The rest of the tables compare various situations such as flopped hands, showdown hands and positional stats. Since 13k hands isn’t a huge sample I’ve tried to pinpoint only those areas where the numbers are extremely different. So, from bottom upwards (sorry, that’s just the way they were pasted);

Positional stats at the bottom aren’t much different, and that doesn’t surprise me. It’s been a while since I really came to understand the power of position, and I don’t think I’m spewing too much by playing OOP in the wrong situations.

The flopped hands shows one big anomaly. When I hit a top pair with weak kicker (and no draw), last year I lost about $100 (it’s not too surprising that this is a losing hand, it could easily be out paired on later streets and obviously out-kicked) – the later session though I’ve lost $343 though!  It’s the biggest difference in that table, so I need to see what I’m doing differently. I’m probably just playing them too aggressively and not controlling the pot enough. There are probably two situations – ace with weak kicker, and a low top pair (for instance, 9’s on a 923 board). I need to see which is the one I’m messing up. It’s probably more likely to be the aces I think.

Edit – I’ve just realised this is TPWK or worse, so this is including high card hands. I need to dig a bit deeper. It wouldn’t surprise me that I’m now floating overcards too much…

The river made hands seems to suggest that the first session did owe a lot to being a heater – I seem to make a lot more big hands then than lately. Not much I can do about that, unless of course I’m folding too early too often now. Kindof doubt that though.

Groupings suggest big aces have suffered the most lately. I’m putting this one down to variance too – there are a lot of AK pots which become flips, and so a slight shift in luck can result in a large monetary swing.

So final conclusion – top pair weak kicker = my achilles heel. Need to look into this some more…



Forum

Re: Forum Upgrade by Meteoric Today at 02:26 PM
Re: Forum Upgrade by yegor_kgb Today at 06:14 AM
Forum Upgrade by Meteoric 22:22, Mar 10 2010
Re: New version by yegor_kgb 20:19, Mar 09 2010
Re: so i cashed out.. by yegor_kgb 22:11, Mar 03 2010
rakeback by yegor_kgb 13:02, Mar 03 2010
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