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Archive for the ‘PokerStars’ Category
First Supernova Elite of the Year
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011PS = Bingo
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011Good grief, Pokerstars is testing me to the limits. Just had a game with some guy who’s chat was full of ‘hotrunner’ ‘OMFG’ etc. At one point he thought I could see his cards 
Trouble was, with all the BIG hands he was hitting all sorts of crap.
All the way to final hand – 2nd game today where my Sklansky bucks was even more than the real $$$’s I could have won.
hmm, giving up now as I’m spazzing. I’ve won 9-6, and I’m down -$6? That seems pretty bad – FT has worse rake, yet I don’t remember ever being 57% ITM and still down in winnings there…
Day Off
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011Got a day off today – I was off yesterday as well helping my brother with some business stuff and we thought it would take two days. Except it didn’t and I couldn’t face going into work and cancelling a day off
So, a day of absolutely nothing! Obvious there was some pokerage, although getting a lie-in was a godsend too (didn’t manage to sleep at the w/e, and yesterday was a horrendous 5:45am start!).
Full Tilt had no SNGs this morning, something to do with an update I think. 2p2 said it would be over at 7am, but I’ve no idea what timezone that was, so just switched to Pokerstars.
As usual at PS (or at least so far today), I’ve run under EV. Also it’s been really slow going – there’s been a bunch of Russians who must be playing on dial-up since they take an age for each click, which with the slow blind structure of PS means you can actually feel yourself ageing during a match.
Most of that under EV stuff has been fairly bad beats too (not the usual 33 vs AQ type flip), such as AQ vs QT which hits JK9, AQ vs 92s running to a flush, and a few 2pair shoves where the villains TP finds a paired board (not the one that fills my boat obv). Actually it’s been a bit of a struggle, with at least one hand like this in each match, but I’m really proud of my non-tiltage, plus how I’ve stayed in the game to win most of them. I reckon I’m playing really strongly today 
At least I’m not -ve $$$ yet, but there’s still the rest of the day to go. Just have to keep in mind this years resolution of VOLUME!
Isildur1′s Identity to be Released Tonight
Saturday, January 8th, 2011Apparently Pokerstars will be announcing who Isildur1 is tonight at 7pm.
I’ve no idea what timezone that is, or even who my sources are…
Rogged
Monday, January 3rd, 2011OMG, what a morning! 
Bank holiday monday, nothing else to do and plenty of time, so figured I’d stick a bit of cash onto Pokerstars and play their HU knockout MTTs (where it’s $10 buy-in, then you win $5 for each player you knockout). I thought I’d keep signing up for them throughout the day while taking down a few regular husngs in the quiet spots.
Didn’t even get that far.
I registered for the first one and opened a regular husng while waiting. In the opening hands I tried a few cbets to see where I stood – he called all of them and we went to a cheap showdown where he had bottom pair each time.
I then tried a few delayed cbets and some check-raises. Every time I got called, and somehow he had a piece of the board. I figured I couldn’t put him down as a calling station as he had hit each time, even though he was calling really light.
I finally hit a flop, albeit OOP. I lead out each street with him calling me down. He paired his King on the river and took that pot.
I was starting to feel a bit incredulous, plus a bit short of chips. There were a ton of hands like this;
No Limit Holdem Tournament
PokerStars
2 Players
PokerStars
2 Players
$10.00+$0.50
Stacks:
SB (2,320)
Hero (680)
Blinds: 10/20
Pre-Flop: (30, 2 players) Hero is BB 8
10
SB calls 10, Hero checks
Flop: 7
7 2
(40, 2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks
Turn: 10
(40, 2 players)
Hero bets 20, SB raises to 40, Hero calls 20
River: 5 (120, 2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets 60, Hero calls 60
Final Pot: 240
Hero shows
8 10
SB shows a full house, Sevens full of Tens
7 10
SB wins 240 (net +120)
Hero lost 120
At least he couldn’t get value out of monsters, but I was running out of ideas. I had won a pot only twice out of 80 or so hands (I 3bet pre and missed on the dryest board ever – had to lead out and he folded. The other hand was a flopped straight!).
Finally I was desperate with 500 chips – my KQ hit top pair on 7KTr, I raised and he shoved to show AQ. A Jack landed on the river and game over.
Amazing. But what can you do? The MTT started and I tried to shrug it off.
First game was a Russian maniac. Every pot had a stupid reraise somewhere (several 4bets at times). Finally it came down to my TT vs his AJ, and he hit. So that was that – next MTT in an hour.
So I went back to regular games while waiting. And again all the players were hitting any part of the board and calling down. Over and over again.
No Limit Holdem Tournament
PokerStars
2 Players
PokerStars
2 Players
$10.00+$0.50
Stacks:
Hero (1,355)
BB (1,645)
Blinds: 15/30
Pre-Flop: (45, 2 players) Hero is SB K J
Hero raises to 60, BB calls 30
Flop: K 9 2 (120, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 90, BB calls 90
Turn: Q (300, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 240, BB calls 240
River: 2 (780, 2 players)
BB bets 479, Hero calls 479
Final Pot: 1,738
BB shows a flush, King high
J 3
Hero shows
K J
BB wins 1,738 (net +869)
Hero lost 869
Tilted beyond comprehension, I withdrew the remaining cash from PS and gave up. It was only mid-day, ruined utterly
I don’t believe poker is rigged at all, but it’s so easy to see why so many people do. At the microstakes if anyone with the smallest amount of money can play, then why not be giant calling stations – it’s all about the gamble! When their J2 hits a KQ2 board for the win, then whoohoo!
Maybe if I called every street a bit more I could win too…
How Much Rake
Monday, September 13th, 2010Poker 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…
More WTF Is This Crap?
Saturday, September 11th, 2010I’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…
