I also decided that I want to play more hands in position, and not just against the blinds. If someone has opened before me, my strategy for a long time now has been either 3bet big hands, call pocket pairs, or fold. I guess this is fine (or normal even), but surely it means that when I open, the chances are I’ll be OOP unless it folds to the blinds? Sure my late position ranges are wider than my early position ranges, but while that means I do play more hands IP, they’re weaker hands too.

So I thought what kind of hands can I play if someone has opened before me (other than the PP’s and big Ax’s). I guess it has to be a less dominated range than the opener. So I figured if I call with the range of the position earlier than the opener, then I should be IP with a stronger range? Probably not the most intellectual of strategies, I suppose I should really be considering hand strengths in a different light, ie suited connectors and ranges that don’t overlap theirs (that has a name I expect – merged, balanced, aga range?).

As it happened the situation almost never came up – not enough seats at 6max really. If on the button and the MP opened I never had a hand in my UTG range, CO opening I didn’t have a hand from my MP range etc. I think it happened three or four times at most. And I think those hands went 50/50 anyway (mostly missing & folding to the cbet, or betting when unraised and getting a fold), so no great insights there anyway. I probably should put more thought into it and consider a better calling range that’s based on something more intelligent really.

On another plus note Carbon have sorted out my bonus code, so now I’ve 3 months to clear the 150% deposit bonus. I reckon that’s plenty of time as long as I move up before the end. We’ll see.

Still, glad to be back, if only because I can understand what everyone’s saying again (mostly – Cambridge is multicultural to say the least). I’m weighing up whether to start going to Italian lessons, and also continue the Spanish course I was doing last year (off to Barcelona in a week’s time).

Pokerwise, playing better than ever but unfortunately it’s at miserable $5 stakes. BR crushed again. The weekend so far;

Even though most of this weekend I’ve been breakeven, it felt like I was in a dominating position during the games. I’d then make one hero call too many and shift the game to them and then not recover – so the best I can say is I’m playing really well 90% of the time, but that other 10% is killing me. The graph also shows me over EV which is a pretty bad sign (actually $100 under ev for the year, but whatever). So definitely not bad beats to blame – it’s all me unfortunately.

Update forgot to mention – just had a straight flush

At these stakes no-one can lay down a flush (zeebo!), and his turn lead couldn’t have been anything else (Could I lay down a 7 flush? The turn PSB was a bit expensive to call, esp as there weren’t many clubs lower than mine out there & virtually no bluffs or non-flushes in his range. So in retrospect I was probably the idiot there, although maybe calling and hoping the river will be cheap isn’t so awful). Since it was obvious he had a club, I banked on the zeebo effect and went for the shove on the river rather than a less than pot value bet. That was for the final of a 4man too, so very nice

Just pokerstoved that turn – if we assume he’s got a flush then I’ve only 38% equity. So calling $120 to win $360, that means, uh, it’s a bad call? I hate these pot odds stuff. Must be bad, surely. With his actual hand I’ve only a 5% shot on the turn, so Meteoric luckbox strikes again

uh, think I figured out the pot equity/odds thing – after he bets, my 38% equity is $91, so that’s the most I should call. So having to call $120 is bad odds. Can implied odds be factored in? If I do hit my miracle card, then we’ll be playing for stacks (as we did), but how does that work mathmatically (or can’t it without having some magic number for his calling % or FE etc)?

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/

husngs;

It was another month of trying to push into higher staked games – each attempt busting out and having to back pedal a bit to regain confidence. My enforced goal of 20 games to acclimatise into $20s almost worked, but once I cleared the Full Tilt $50 bonus I switched over to Ultimate Bet (who’d offered me a $100 bonus, which might just get cleared by christmas at this rate). However I’d only left about $30 in that account so it was back to $5s and $10s (whatever was available) to rebuild the account a bit first. I’d just got it built to about $100 when it had dawned on me that my overall roll is over $700 – I should be trying $30s, not $20s!

Consequently the obvious happened and a couple of $30 games later I’d blown the account back down to $20 or so (that’s at the 125 game mark). Crawled back to $5s and $10s. I probably should just transfer a couple of hundred from another account, but whatever.

Despite my poor results, the husng players at Ultimate Bet are really bad. Preflop raises are fairly rare and you can pin them down to bluffer, station, nit etc fairly quickly. It seems though that I’m my own worst enemy. For instance I’ll have ground them down to 1/3 of the chips and then do some fool move like call a shove with ATo and end up reversing the chip count. My opponent has made so many bad moves that I start to treat their raises with contempt, and inevitably walk into a monster. Stupid stuff. I’ve even changed my avatar to a fish to remind me who the idiot at the table really is…

Cash;

No, I’ve not really returned to cash games – as explained in an earlier post I did a bit of rush to clear the last few $$$ of my FT bonus and somehow accidentally won at the same time. The blue line that shoots off at the end is rakeback + the bonus.

So end result is +$100 (Rakeback on the husngs is $30 which cancelled out the husng losses). Compared to the last two months that’s fairly poor, but I’m not complaining – it’s still a gain!

Next month? I’m determined not to wimp out of playing the stakes I should be playing. That means $30 games. Unless I get a few games in a row that’ll mean transferring some money to my UB account, but no big deal really.

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…

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

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!

• 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)

• 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   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 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
• 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

• 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   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
• 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

• 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;

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;

• 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

• 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)