Looks like Full Tilt have released rush poker that you can play on a mobile phone;
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/rush-poker-mobile
I’ve getting an HTC Desire HD in a couple of weeks once my current contract runs out, so might be an excuse to play during lunch breaks.
Except that I suck at 6max. Probably not a good idea really…
Poker TableRatings have a new page that shows average rake paid; http://www.pokertableratings.com/poker-rake-analysis/no-limit-hold%27em
Obviously the sites that offer rakeback will have higher Rake, but for nanostakes (NL10 and less) even with Rakeback Full Tilt was really bad compared to Pokerstars or Party Poker. Guess I’ve just moved my roll to the wrong site.
I suspect if I move up to NL50 I might lose more than just rake though…
I’ve decided to move my entire roll to Full Tilt since Pokerstars was annoying me, and I was missing the rakeback that was the only thing that kept my roll alive.
The wire transfer will take a couple of days, but the amount’s not such a big deal that I can’t just take it out of my current account. However when I opened up FT it wasn’t totally empty – a lonely $10 sat there (looks like my affiliate has switched from monthly Rakeback to weekly).
So I thought I’d have a go to see if I could build that $10 a little and just wait for the wire transfer to clear (unless I lose it in the next hour or so). Game chosen: $2 husngs.
So far lost only two, both of which were miracle 5% hits by the villains. $2 seems massively different from any other husngs – everyone calls everything!
One opponent decided to help me out;
Board was QK2QK, he’d checked turn & river so I put out a little thin value bet on the river with my Ace – he calls with his J and says ‘Obvious’. He then went on to call my flop cbets with hands that had no way of improving (you’re bluffing so I call?), and then after this hand where I thought it was worth a bluff on the river (despite having said what huge stations these guys are);
No Limit Holdem Tournament
2 Players
$2 + $0.15 Heads Up Sit & Go
Stacks:
Hero (2,425)
BB (575)
Blinds: 15/30
Pre-Flop: (45, 2 players) Hero is SB 10
8
Hero raises to 60, BB calls 30
Flop: 6 9 K (120, 2 players)
BB bets 30, Hero calls 30
Turn: 2 (180, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
River: 2
(180, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 120
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain: lol i checked fool
BB folds
Final Pot: 300
Hero wins 300 (net +90)
BB lost 90
Hero: I’m the fool?
Hero: or you?
Villain: u raise a check yes
Hero: but I had air & you folded, so all worked out?
Villain: u raised
Villain: i checked u raised?
Hero: at which point?
Hero: I’m lost – which bit do you mean?
Villain: why raise if i check
Hero: as a bluff
Hero: I had nothing
Hero: you checked on turn, which looked weak
Villain: no chit…..duh
Villain: bought it
Villain: get a grip dude
Hero: uh, but I won the hand?
Villain: didnt matter fool
Hero: yep, I would have folded if you had bet
Villain: who bets after a check?
Hero: someone who bluffs?
Hero: or someone who has a hand
Villain: that get dumb
and now I’m bothered that I get dumb. Don’t raise a check as it’s buying the pot which is bad? No idea…
Moments away from going busto now (<$100 left), so to stretch it out a bit longer I decided to play NL5 rush poker with the intention of working on my 6max ABC poker. The idea being to tighten up a bit (I’m too much SLAG and not enough TAG), fold to big raises more and see how a less bluffy/more valuebetting me might do.
So far so good, more or less. Had one bad beat where my KT 2pair hand went all-in against their T8 2pair, and of course an 8 rolled out on the river – however need to put in loads more hands so those beats merge into the noise.
Anyway, if I’m supposed to be playing totally ABC, then what’s the move on this hand. Assume no history or stats (it is rush poker after all);
$0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem
6 Players
Stacks:
UTG ($6.94)
UTG+1 ($7.17)
Hero ($5.75)
BTN ($6.92)
SB ($4.65)
BB ($5.79)
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is CO 8 8
UTG raises to $0.10, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.10, 1 fold, SB calls $0.08, 1 fold
Flop: 9 4 7 ($0.35, 3 players)
SB bets $0.05, UTG calls $0.05, Hero calls $0.05
Turn: 2
($0.50, 3 players)
SB bets $0.50, UTG folds, Hero ?
Harder work than I imagined, plus it pushes the tilt buttons a bit. This is two hours from this morning (1 hour of actual play, the rest made up of making coffee and having to restart Full Tilt after several crashes – one of which I managed to get back into the game with 200 chips & come back to win 
);
28 games, 14 won, 14 lost.
What have I learnt so far (from only 30 or so games 
)? Being so shortstacked 3bb open raises and 3betting should be obviously poor plays, yet I’m finding the players who do this very difficult to beat. Firstly you’re folding a lot to them so losing plenty of blinds & your 2bb openraises, secondly if you do call to see a flop it’s really difficult to continue without getting committed (maybe my 4bet shove range is too tight, not that these hands come along enough to make that much difference). Of course they’re in the same situation (which is why it’s so bad on their part), but if they keep the initiative it’s hard to play against. Ideally you want an idiot who bloats the pot like this and then plays fit or fold postflop, but finding out if they’re like this can be an expensive process (esp if they hit a hand, which can be any piece of the board – expect them to call down A2 when they hit the 2).
However fortunately at these stakes the majority of players are still calling on the button pre, with plenty of random shoves. A min-reraise pre is either an A or a PP, and I’m almost tempted to start folding to these since I seem to be getting into trouble despite the tiny call to make (for similar reasons to above). The random shoves are often really wide, although usually contain an A of course, but I’d seen stuff like T6o as well.
So no idea on a strategy yet, other than play the usual endgame stuff (not Nash btw, which is a ridiculous endgame approach). Never giving up hope is a good start, it’s remarkable how often you can come back from < 200 chips.
Perfectly read hands (aka hero donkey calls);
2 Players
$5 + $0.15 Heads Up Sit & Go
Stacks:
Hero (470)
BB (530)
Blinds: 15/30
Pre-Flop: (45, 2 players) Hero is SB 5 K
Hero raises to 60, BB calls 30
Flop: 9 Q 7 (120, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
Turn: 9 (120, 2 players)
BB bets 60, Hero calls 60
River: 9 (240, 2 players)
BB bets 90, Hero calls 90
Final Pot: 420
BB shows
10 4
Hero shows three of a kind, Nines
5 K
Hero wins 420 (net +210)
BB lost 210
2 Players
$5 + $0.15 Heads Up Sit & Go
Stacks:
Hero (480)
BB (520)
Blinds: 10/20
Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is SB 4 A
Hero raises to 40, BB calls 20
Flop: 10 6 2 (80, 2 players)
BB bets 120, Hero calls 120
Turn: 2 (320, 2 players)
BB bets 60, Hero calls 60
River: 5 (440, 2 players)
BB bets 190, Hero calls 190
Final Pot: 820
Hero shows a pair of Twos
4 A
BB shows
K 4
Hero wins 820 (net +410)
BB lost 410
Best month ever;
Start of the month moved up to $30′s, and by the end I’d moved up to $50s! 
It’s borderline on the $50s really – I think I’ve even dropped back under the threshold already, but it’s all very close. The only thing I’m disappointed about is volume, even though it’s only a few games short of previous months – it is my biggest weakness, and no matter how much I moan about it I still struggle to improve.
The tiny bit of cash I played was just for the Full Tilt Take 2 promotion, and TBH it was a mistake and I’m thinking that I’ll not take up a promotion that requires cash play again;
Notice the blue line taking a jump at the end – that’s the $25 bonus. The whole reason for playing cash in the first place! Admittedly the biggest loss in that graph was not while I was trying to clear the bonus (which only took 5 minutes of play each morning) – it was just one stupid night where I decided to have a quick spin at nl25 and it went really bad! Clearly not my game though.
Final total with rakeback & bonuses = $482, although I also cashed out $120 to pay for some bits & pieces, including husng coaching. So far I’ve only had 2 HH’s reviewed and not a sweat session yet. Taking it fairly slowly as I want to digest properly what I get back before paying out for more. So far so good though, and I’m very pleased with what I’ve got so far.
On Sunday I’ve the SCOOP tournament paid for by the $215 ticket I won at the blogger’s championship. Really really hoping I don’t crash out before cashing, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Nevertheless if I do cash it’ll put a nice margin to play those $50′s with, so I’ve got my fingers crossed.
I’ve withdrawn some money!
Just a little ($120) – that’s the first time since I had to take everything out to pay credit card bills and restarted from scratch. It’s not something I really want to do since every step backwards on the BR is time lost in getting to higher stakes, but there was a couple of things I wanted to get. Since they were poker related I thought it’d be reasonable to use some of my BR for them.
First thing was a HH review by a coach. ChicagoRy posts on 2p2 a lot and seems a smart guy. He plays $100s, has a good record and can certainly teach me something. The HH review was $40, and he was clear and it all made sense what he was saying – however to get the most out of it I’m going to have to send him at least one more and then maybe a sweat session. One HH review isn’t going to revolutionise my game (I guess it’s like tennis lessons – get an individual lesson and it costs about £20. It’ll improve your serve a little, but won’t turn you into Federer instantly). Several HH and a session will add up to a fair bit of $$$ unfortunately, but the time seems about right. If the rest of the week goes well I’ll send him a second HH and take it a step at a time. If the rest of this week bombs, then it’ll have to wait.
Second thing was Omaha holdem manager. A bit of a frivolous buy, but during the times when I don’t want to gamble too heavily (ie reg peak times of the US afternoon) I’ve been knocking about with $1 PLO husngs. Cheapest way of playing PLO heads up! Postflop I’m getting more confident, but I’m still clueless about preflop (is it ever worth 3betting?). My opponents seem more clueless though, so it’s hard to know if I’m thinking clearly or if they’re just spazzing out;
$1 + $0.10 Heads Up Sit & Go
Stacks:
Hero (1,620)
BB (1,380)
Blinds: 10/20
Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players)
Hero is SB K
8
3
9
Hero raises to 40, BB calls 20
Flop: 6 5 7 (80, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 80, BB calls 80
Turn: J (240, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 240, BB raises to 480, Hero goes all-in 1,500, BB goes all-in 780
River: 5 (3,000, 2 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: 3,000
Hero shows a straight, Nine high
K 8 3 9
BB shows a straight, Eight high
A 8 3 4
Hero wins 3,000 (net +1,380)
BB lost 1,380
lol, to be fair when I chose that HH (mainly just to test if the convertor worked) I didn’t realise he had a straight. Maybe not such a spaz after all…
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