jackgck's Pokerblog

Just a little update.

2010-09-29T04:23:00.000-07:00

Just to show that I still am aware of this blogs existence...

I may even be a little above expected all in value at this point! WOW.

Add this to $389.08 in rakeback and a $173 miniFTOPS cash and I've made $969.07 since the last update. Probably a little less with other tournament buyins. Most of this was played in the month of september and august. There's a ton of room for improvement and my volume in september has really sucked, but my winrate looks solid, so I hope I can move up soon.

I am playing NL25 Rush currently and will move up to take shots at NL50 after playing another 50000 hands or so. Obviously the little downswing at the end hurt a bit, but I know I can succeed here.

- Jack

PS. You can always follow my LP blog at http://vasoline73.liquidpoker.net/

Horrible hand in a tournament

2010-03-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

So last month I cashed out of FTP for almost all of my money. I left about 55 dollars in the account, bought into miniFTOPS event #10 for 33$ and didn't play until that tournament.

The tournament was today. Firstly, 1st place got a sick $91,000 and everything above 90th place in my opinion would have been a very nice payday for me... there were 21,000 contestants and 2400 people got paid.

I was doing great the entire tournament, staying up above the chip average and there were about 3000 people left when this hand happened.

Full Tilt Poker Game #19261444311: MiniFTOPS Event #10 (128337446), Table 1199 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:11:25 ET - 2010/03/14
Seat 1: ElCachalote (14,139)
Seat 2: jackgck (42,094)
Seat 3: niggi23 (11,163)
Seat 4: samtau42 (5,017)
Seat 5: xx WOOPA xx (18,199)
Seat 6: swiatch (31,551)
Seat 7: Paulinho78 (54,842)
Seat 8: bluefolder (15,660)
Seat 9: d_hawkins701 (11,384)
ElCachalote antes 125
jackgck antes 125
niggi23 antes 125
samtau42 antes 125
xx WOOPA xx antes 125
swiatch antes 125
Paulinho78 antes 125
bluefolder antes 125
d_hawkins701 antes 125
xx WOOPA xx posts the small blind of 500
swiatch posts the big blind of 1,000
The button is in seat #4

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to jackgck
Paulinho78 raises to 2,000
bluefolder folds
d_hawkins701 folds
ElCachalote folds
jackgck calls 2,000
niggi23 folds
samtau42 folds
xx WOOPA xx folds
swiatch has 15 seconds left to act
swiatch calls 1,000

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $7,625.00)


swiatch checks
Paulinho78 bets 1,000
jackgck has 15 seconds left to act
jackgck raises to 5,000
swiatch folds
Paulinho78 calls 4,000

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $17,625.00)


d_hawkins701 has been disconnected
Paulinho78 bets 2,000
d_hawkins701 has reconnected
jackgck has 15 seconds left to act
jackgck raises to 17,000
Paulinho78 calls 15,000

River (Pot : $51,625.00)


Paulinho78 has 15 seconds left to act
Paulinho78 bets 30,717, and is all in
jackgck calls 17,969, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 12,748 returned to Paulinho78

Showdown
Paulinho78 shows four of a kind, Sevens
jackgck mucks
Paulinho78 wins the pot (87,563) with four of a kind, Sevens
Paulinho78 is feeling happy

Summary
Total pot 87,563 | Rake 0
Board:
Seat 1: ElCachalote folded before the Flop
Seat 2: jackgck mucked - a full house, Threes full of Sevens
Seat 3: niggi23 folded before the Flop
Seat 4: samtau42 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: xx WOOPA xx (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: swiatch (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: Paulinho78 showed and won (87,563) with four of a kind, Sevens
Seat 8: bluefolder folded before the Flop
Seat 9: d_hawkins701 folded before the Flop

It was honestly sickening and felt like a huge set up. The guy with the pocket 7's was a fish, and it showed strongly in this hand. I don't know what he was thinking on the flop when I'm raising with a person behind me after he's continuation bet (a terrible continuation bet btw.. 1000 into 7000? what is that?) It really felt like he was totally unaware of any kind of table position or dynamics. On the flop he had a 10% chance of winning, by the river he had the stone cold nuts.

Because of his weak leads I felt like he was on a flush draw because that's often how fish play flush draws... bet weak, call large raise, bet weak, call large raise, and shove river because they want value. I feel like if the river was a flush card that didn't pair the board I maybe maybe could have found a fold.. but Full Tilt had other ideas.

Really, if I had won this hand I would have been in the top 200 of the tournament and would have had a great chance to cash strong. It hurts to lose to someone you consider a fish when you're so deep in a tournament. I feel like I could have continued to do really well, but I just got horribly unlucky and it wasn't supposed to be.
-----------------------------------------------------
Anyways, I haven't played any online ring games or tournaments recently, but I guess I'll get back to grinding up a roll eventually. Maybe I'll try grinding PLO microstakes a bit.

Thanks for reading guys. I'm sorry I'm not $91,000 richer -_-

Fun Hands

2010-01-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

I plan on doing a "real" update soon enough, but for now here's some fun hands I've played.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789772
Good example on how not to play AK. Overall this guy was playing very loose passive which is why I decided to isolate him preflop with the marginal hand and position. Obviously a very good flop, turn, and river for the situation.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789771

Sigh. I bet more knowing he would call with marginal hands. Maybe I could C/R this flop, but I don't think it matters. A fish isn't folding a pair ever.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789770
I played this passively post flop but his river bet just didn't make whole lot of sense. I guess this hand isn't that interesting but I felt good about it for some reason.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789768
3bet bluffing an aggressive fish. Tried to size my 3bet largeish for maximum fold equity but the call ended up fine as he folded to the flop cbet.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789762
Again, deep against a fish. Lucky river card saves me from the top of his range in that spot

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789505
A good spot to squeeze. Villain 1 raises too much and villain 2 calls too much, so obviously they have marginal hands a large percentage of the time. Notice that the hand really doesn't matter in this kind of spot.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789429
When he shoves the river I feel like he's polarized towards absolute air and extreamely strong aces/set... just because of the way the hand played out I decided it was worth a call. I feel like a strong hand bets the turn no matter what on a draw heavy board like that so..

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789425
Don't play pocket 8's like this -_-. Also, note the flop check. I give him room to hang himself when a shove by me will probably just fold most of his range out.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/789365
When the Q comes on the turn I decide to turn my hand into a bluff. The jack probably wasnt the best river card to barrel but when he's not shoving turn I assume he can't be too strong. This definitely could be fancy play syndrome from me though.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/788557
Sigh. I made this turn call because I thought that the only real 5x he had here was 55. Sadly he had exactly that, 55. Definitely a marginal call in the long run but I feel like he rarely has a 5 there and it's such a good card to bluff. I don't know :/.

Open Limping

2010-01-14T01:40:00.000-08:00

In 105,777 hands I've played on Full Tilt so far I've only open limped 68 times.. just something to think about in regards to how poor of an option open limping is.

Quit being lazy

2010-01-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've blogged about poker, but things have been solid recently. My bankroll is at 240 dollars and I've been playing NL10 where things have been breakeven (only have played like 3000 hands in this current shot). Something I've noticed about the stake is that there's more 3betting and aggressive play... but at the same time I think it may be even more straightforward and easy to play than NL5. People are incorrectly aggressive and I'm starting to pick up on how to play against these leaky LAGs. There's also alot of leaky TAGs...

I've been thinking a lot about people who play poker and claim to take it seriously and honestly I'm not really impressed. I know some people who claim to take the game seriously on web forums I post on that have barely played 40000 hands since April... these people wonder why they haven't gotten great results and why their poker skill hasn't shined through. If there's one thing I'm learning about this game it's that a lot of people think they know how to play well... but in reality most people are too thick headed to realize that their game has serious leaks and they play passive and bad.

Not to say I'm a great player or even close, but I've been honest with myself and have put in more and more volume recently. I think I can keep grinding and building my tolerance for grinding more and more hands. Recently I've been finding my ability to 6 table has gotten considerably better than it was before. I'm pretty happy about that and it's only come by grinding things out and working hard. I'm done complaining about results not being good.. the only way I can show results is by putting in volume and hard work. If you have a dream to be a great poker player and are playing like 1000 hands per week online I think that's just being dishonest to yourself.

Anyways I'm really tired so goodnight. I'm expecting a good January for poker :D...

Past couple of days

2009-12-19T00:41:00.000-08:00

Well, long time no blog. I haven't played much poker since my last blog but this month I've made about a 100 bucks.. which is ok but.. eh.

This is my graph for the last two days...

That's all NL5 which is all I'm rolled for now, but I'm close to being rolled for NL10.. so hopefully I'll be moving up soon.

I feel like I've been playing better than I ever have, but I need to focus more regardless.

On another note I played my first thursday TPT to disappointing results. In the first level Street3 limped UTG, some random guy min raised, and I 3bet to a large amount of chips with AK... Street3 flatted out of position, original raiser folded.. flop came A48ss and Street3 lead out for full pot about 500 chips and I decided to shove for value thinking that he could definitely limp under the gun with something like a worse ace.. mostly because I assumed he was bad having not played with him before.

Anyways he tank called (slowrolled? lol) with 44 for the bottom set and I lost, but honestly, I'm not really phased by it. I personally think he played the hand horribly.. limping UTG and then flatting a huge 3bet out of position with pocket 4's where on most flops he'll have to check fold.. does he think I'm reraising the raiser behind him light and that 44 is going to be easy to play out of position post flop? Oh well, I guess he got his perfect flop for stacking me. Maybe I'll play in TPT again some other time.

In general I'm not going to be folding on a board like that after 3betting so huge against somebody limp calling under the gun which already makes me assume they are weak/passive.. I thought the "hit pot button" lead on the flop was fishy too and the only logical hands I was losing to in my mind was a poorly played A8s or something which seemed unlikely. I thought most people would raise 88 UTG and I thought that even if he limped something like 44 he would fold after a raise and a reraise preflop.

Guess it's foldable early in a tournament though, so it's something to think about.

Really, I've been super lazy with online poker recently and it's unacceptable. I have to try harder and accomplish my goals. I think that if I'm not 100% focused on trying to improve that I might as well stop playing... so I'm going to focus.

Thanks for reading guys.

Just wanted to say...

2009-11-07T08:33:00.001-08:00

GO PHIL IVEY WIN THE MAIN EVENT! You deserve it man! Take it down!

(Even though I want Ivey to win, maybe the best outcome is for Darvin Moon and Ivey to end up heads up with Moon taking it down in the end? Maybe flopped set v Ivey's overpair or something so it looks like Moon outplayed him?

I think maybe that would be better for poker as more fish would come into the game thinking they could beat Ivey also :D. I mean imagine the Moneymaker effect times 2? Would be really good for the game selection to bring fish into the fray. Who knows....)

TPT Late Night

2009-11-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

Well I played in my first TPT. TPT Late Night. Came in 3rd thanks to a sick set up! Wtf FTP!? Hahaha. Pretty hilarious hand though... very Rounders...

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/763569

I really have to describe it as Jordan, me, and the nits O_O. Almost everyone was playing with VPIP lower than 14%... two players had about 5%... meaning they were only playing 5% of their hands. Because of this I loosened up alottttttttttt and ended up playing 35/32... really really loose aggressive. Jordan was 38/18... a little bit more passive, but probably a winning style against people so tight.

One guy three bet me every chance he got and I sucked out on him big time 67s v QQ all in preflop lol. He kept 3betting so I assumed he couldn't have a strong hand everytime..

I saw him 3bet ATo after that, so it's nice to have a bit of a read. I wonder if he was doing it to counter me being loose or if he just overvalues Ax hands...

Overall poker has been good to me recently. When I cashed out I had about 75 dollars left in my account... now I'm back at 118... so, good stuff. Haven't really been playing too much either so it's nice to know I can build a bankroll without putting too much effort into it.

I plan on going back to cash games again soon though, so I'm looking forward to it. :D.

Later guys.

- Jack

Final table fun

2009-10-31T03:37:00.000-07:00

Dealer: jackbadboy shows [Ac 9c]Dealer: floridatom77 shows a pair of Queens
Dealer: jackbadboy shows Ace Queen high
Dealer: floridatom77 wins the pot (8,210) with a pair of Queens
Dealer: Hand #15697762828
iggy4mayor: lol
iggy4mayor: what kinda call is that
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackbadboy wins the pot (750)
STX14: he was commited lol
Dealer: Hand #15697765887
JPatie: the i know im beat call
jackbadboy: right :)
Dealer: iggy4mayor has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (2,650)
Dealer: Hand #15697773117
Dealer: STX14 has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (1,050)
System: The $5,000 Guarantee ($10+$1 NL Hold'em) will be starting in 4 minutes.
Dealer: Foldem314 has been disconnected
Dealer: Foldem314 has reconnected
Dealer: Hand #15697816563
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackbadboy wins the pot (750)
Dealer: Hand #15697820386
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (750)
Dealer: Hand #15697823369
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (300)
Dealer: Hand #15697826199
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (5,400)
Tournament Director: The blinds are now 200/400
Dealer: Hand #15697833610
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackbadboy shows [8h 8d]
Dealer: Takeshi83 shows [4c 6h]
Dealer: Foldem314 shows [Tc Ad]
Dealer: jackbadboy shows two pair, Tens and Eights
Dealer: Foldem314 shows a full house, Tens full of Aces
Dealer: Foldem314 wins the side pot (2,800) with a full house, Tens full of Aces
Dealer: Takeshi83 shows two pair, Tens and Sixes
Dealer: Foldem314 wins the main pot (4,940) with a full house, Tens full of Aces
Dealer: Hand #15697840086
Dealer: Takeshi83 finishes in 8th place
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (800)
Dealer: Hand #15697843011
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackbadboy wins the pot (800)
Dealer: Hand #15697847946
jackgck: wow fold em are you serious
jackgck: limping the sb
jackgck: wtf are you doing haha he is obviously shoving anything there
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: JPatie wins the pot (400)
Dealer: Hand #15697853229
STX14: lol word
iggy4mayor: nh foldem
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
Foldem314: true .. playin another tourney
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: JPatie wins the pot (800)
Dealer: Hand #15697858901
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (1,000)
Dealer: Hand #15697861524
Dealer: jackgck has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (3,000)
Dealer: Hand #15697867632
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: Foldem314 wins the pot (1,000)
Dealer: Hand #15697873381
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: Foldem314 shows [Qs Qc]
Dealer: jackgck shows [Ad 9c]
Dealer: Foldem314 shows two pair, Kings and Queens
Dealer: jackgck shows a pair of Kings
Dealer: Foldem314 wins the pot (12,680) with two pair, Kings and Queens
Dealer: Hand #15697879702
Dealer: iggy4mayor wins the pot (1,000)
Tournament Director: The blinds are now 250/500
Dealer: Hand #15697883867
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (1,250)
Dealer: Hand #15697887932
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
jackgck: omfg someone shove
jackgck: thank god
Dealer: iggy4mayor shows [Ah Ac] a pair of Aces
Dealer: iggy4mayor wins the pot (1,500)
Dealer: Hand #15697894823
jackgck: limpers ugh
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
jackgck: keep waiting for the nuts guys
iggy4mayor: i was hoping someone would call me there
Dealer: jackbadboy wins the pot (1,250)
Dealer: Hand #15697899146
STX14: lol
jackgck: really great strategy
iggy4mayor: lol sorry everyone seems to be holding out for cash
jackgck: enjoy the min 2.25 cash
Dealer: iggy4mayor wins the pot (1,250)
Dealer: Hand #15697903744
iggy4mayor: i know right
Dealer: jackgck shows [Kd Qc]
Dealer: JPatie shows [Qs Ac]
iggy4mayor: i just want to get this @%%& going so we can play for how much money we get
iggy4mayor: king
Dealer: jackgck shows a pair of Aces
Dealer: JPatie shows three of a kind, Aces
Dealer: JPatie wins the pot (9,320) with three of a kind, Aces
Dealer: Hand #15697908634
Dealer: floridatom77 shows [Th 9h]
Dealer: STX14 shows [Ac Ks]
Dealer: floridatom77 shows a pair of Threes
Dealer: STX14 shows a pair of Threes
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (13,570) with a pair of Threes
Dealer: Hand #15697912239
Dealer: floridatom77 finishes in 7th place
jackgck: finally
STX14: lol
jackgck: there you guys cashed wooo
jackgck: woooo
STX14: wwwwooooooo
jackgck: limppppppp
jackgck: lol
Dealer: jackbadboy wins the pot (1,000)
Dealer: Hand #15697917781
jackgck: limp fold ewww foldem. stop chip dumping please
Dealer: Foldem314 has 15 seconds left to act
jackgck: wonder if he has the nuts
Dealer: STX14 shows [As Qc]
Dealer: Foldem314 shows [Jc Jd]
Dealer: STX14 shows a flush, Ace high
Dealer: Foldem314 shows a pair of Jacks
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (22,710) with a flush, Ace high
jackgck: GGGGGGG
Dealer: Hand #15697924100
Dealer: Foldem314 finishes in 6th place and wins: $2.25
Dealer: iggy4mayor wins the pot (2,650)
Dealer: Hand #15697926773
Dealer: iggy4mayor shows [8h 8s]
Dealer: jackgck shows [Qh Ah]
Dealer: iggy4mayor shows two pair, Kings and Jacks
Dealer: jackgck shows a straight, Ace high
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (15,880) with a straight, Ace high
Dealer: Hand #15697930843
Dealer: iggy4mayor finishes in 5th place and wins: $2.70
STX14: lol
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (3,500)
Tournament Director: The blinds are now 300/600
Dealer: Hand #15697934946
Dealer: jackbadboy has 15 seconds left to act
jackgck: SHOVE
jackgck: SHOVE
jackgck: SHOVE
jackgck: SHOVE
Dealer: jackbadboy shows [Th 9s]
Dealer: STX14 shows [Ks Jh]
Dealer: jackbadboy shows two pair, Aces and Nines
Dealer: STX14 shows two pair, Aces and Jacks
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (6,880) with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Dealer: Hand #15697941162
Dealer: jackbadboy finishes in 4th place and wins: $4.50
Dealer: Hand #15697942330
Dealer: STX14 shows [Kd 5h] King Eight high
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (2,400)
Dealer: Hand #15697945543
Dealer: jackgck has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackgck shows two pair, Kings and Sixes
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (4,400) with two pair, Kings and Sixes
Dealer: Hand #15697952740
STX14: nh
Dealer: jackgck has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: jackgck has requested TIME
Dealer: JPatie wins the pot (1,800)
Dealer: Hand #15697958812
STX14: over the top he folds
Dealer: STX14 shows two pair, Eights and Fours
Dealer: jackgck shows two pair, Jacks and Eights
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (12,500) with two pair, Jacks and Eights
Dealer: Hand #15697964332
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (600)
Dealer: Hand #15697965341
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (1,500)
Dealer: Hand #15697967807
jackgck: jpatie how about shoving
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (600)
Dealer: Hand #15697969620
jackgck: you wont win
STX14: no lie
jackgck: if you dont gamble
jackgck: quit waiting for the nuts kid
Dealer: JPatie has 15 seconds left to act
JPatie: i dont like gamble :P
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (3,600)
Dealer: Hand #15697974155
Dealer: JPatie wins the pot (600)
Dealer: Hand #15697975826
JPatie: A K or Q is enough
STX14: well you can start to like it or blind off
Dealer: jackgck wins the pot (1,500)
Dealer: Hand #15697977979
JPatie: i like it
JPatie: :P
Dealer: STX14 has 15 seconds left to act
STX14: and after your A/K or A/Q misses you cant take a raise so you fold anyways
Dealer: jackgck has 15 seconds left to act
JPatie: then there is no way back now :P
Dealer: STX14 wins the pot (2,400)
Dealer: Hand #15697986117
STX14: nope
Dealer: JPatie wins the pot (600)
----------------------------------------------------

Nothing like a little trash talking. Came in second in this one :(

Long Time, No Blog

2009-10-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

What's been up guys?

Feels like a long time since I've blogged last. There's a reason though... I just haven't been playing too much poker recently.

Actually, that's only half true. I've been playing a decent amount of poker, just not taking it too seriously and staying away from cash games. Shortly after my last blog I went on a 80 dollar + cash game session playing for about 2 hours and playing about 3000 hands in the process... while I was proud of my accomplishment, I felt like I wasn't playing my A game.

The following day I lost about 90 dollars in 30 minutes and had to "x" out of FTP. I ran AK into AQ and lost, set over set, etc suckouts and was pretty upset for the rest of the day. In the end it was only a net loss of 10 dollars... which I probably made back (plus more) in rakeback, but the fact that it left me really upset concerned me and left me realizing I needed a break.

So until I feel like playing again.. no taking the game seriously or playing much cash. Without a doubt cash poker ring games are the hardest games to play well in and recently I just haven't had the urge to play them. I think the break is going to help me improve and come back with a clear mind.

Since then I've been having fun donking around in SNGs and MTTs where the average level of play is abysmal O_O. The 5 dollar SNGs are filled with some of the worst players I've ever seen and I plan on playing them more often, although they are hard to take seriously sometimes. MTT's I've been having more fun in, although they can be equally frustrating... I min cashed in a 5 dollar 300 person MTT which sucked and was in the top 100 of Full Tilt's Daily Dollar deep stacked tournament with 2000 people remaining when I decided to shove over someones 3bet with pocket 4s and got snapped by the exact kind of hand I thought he would have and that I could get him to fold.. AJo -_-. J on the flop and I was out. I'm still impressed/unimpressed that the guy could have thought AJ was good in his spot, but I guess he made the right call. I still question the move on my part... we both were in the top 100 of the 2000 player field, break was set to start after all tables had ceased playing the current hand... I thought I had a lot of fold equity and that he would fold out almost all his hands in that spot. :(. Oh well. I definitely could have just waited for a better spot, but at the same time I wanted to apply pressure. Something to think about I guess.

In addition to taking a bit of a break I decided to cash out 300$ out of FTP. I wasn't doing anything with that much money online and so there was no reason to keep it there. That leaves me with about 80 dollars on my account to regrind with, which will be fine. I'll play NL2 until 125$... and start at NL5 again from there once I decide I want to play again.

And thank god for Rakeback. Also, shout out to Paul for playing in the RakeTheRake freeroll for me and making us both 33 bucks! (33? lol.)

Looking forward to coming back to poker soon. I really want to go to Morongo soon and crush the 1/3 game there...

NL10 and on.

2009-10-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

Hey guys what's been going on.

Poker has been good to me recently. The tournament win that I took home has really helped my bankroll and confidence which was going downhill.

When I won the tournament my bankroll hit 505 dollars. I then transferred 50$ to a friend who originally transferred me money on FTP so I could start building a bankroll. So I was at 455 dollars. I then took a NL50 (before this my normal stake was NL5) shot, 1 tabling at a friends house for fun. Sadly, this hand came up as I was thinking about leaving the table and I lost my buyin :(.

https://www.pokertableratings.com/replayer/index.php?site=fulltilt&id=15347303204&hash=2973722845

Because I was playing a much higher stake than I was used to, the limp 3bet UTG made me really nervous and I had to think hard about calling. The limp raise UTG is a common "Do this with AA or KK" donk move in my opinion at low stakes. But at the same time, I've seen people show up with AK and low pocket pairs. I think people limp them in, face a raise, have no idea how to play them and just rebet them. But blah.

Honestly, if I was at my normal stake I would have just 4bet shoved it all in, but I was scared, just called and called all in on the flop. The fact that he open shipped the flop makes me question if this player was any good. I played a couple more hands at the table and came to the conclusion that he wasn't.. which makes it a little bit frustrating, but whatever. It's a learning experience and I was playing a higher stake for risk/reward that I accepted before playing.

I really hate that play though. It's gonna work if you have someone with JJ, QQ, AK, KK... but alot of times no one will have that.. and people will limp behind.. and then your aces are nothing. Slowplayers in general just rub me badly.

Ohhhhhh well.

So my bankroll is about 400 dollars right now, and I've been taking shots at NL10 which I think is going pretty well. I feel like 4 tabling and not tilting are helping me focus on the game alot better :D.

Once my bankroll hits 625 I'll begin to take shots at NL25. I'll keep you guys updated. For now, time to hit the tables

- Jack

ALSO. Funny hands I've played recently

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/756105 From a SNG I didn't really care about. Honestly though.. I figured my 2's were good alot on the flop as I already had a feeling I was being bluffed by a TAG annoyed by me raising every other hand

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/755792 What do you think about calling river? Standard bet fold? What are we ahead and behind? I thought we were always beat here.. so I folded. :/. Interesting spot though.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/755737 Bleh

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/755736 BLEH!!!!!!

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/755729 BLEHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

When you run bad...

2009-10-12T00:34:00.001-07:00

...run good.

On a side note, I hate tournaments. Even with this win. lol.

The hand that won me the tournament btw...

Hand #15283515658 begins at 2009/10/12
jackgck posts the ante of 2,500
mtjoe45 posts the ante of 2,500
Dealing down cards
Dealt to jackgck [7c 8s]
mtjoe45 posts the big blind of 20,000
jackgck posts the small blind of 10,000
jackgck raises to 60,000.
mtjoe45 calls 40,000.
*Flop [Jc 8c 5h]*
mtjoe45 bets 441,676, and is all-in.
jackgck calls 435,324, and is all-in.
Dealing Turn [9c]
Dealing River [Qd]
mtjoe45 shows [Kc 2h]
mtjoe45 has High Card, King
jackgck shows [7c 8s]
jackgck has One Pair, Eights
jackgck wins 995,648

Booooooooom. Sucka. This hand to me really proved that I was the better player than 2nd place. He would never just open jam a jack there, or any strong hand.. so it was an easy call for me. Not sure what he was trying to represent.

3rd place deserved 2nd in my humble opinion :P.

Anyways, this makes my recent cash results a little bit easier to swallow :P

Tilting gives you bad results

2009-10-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a bad October so far :O. I'm down about 50$ since the month started. And I'm sad to say that alot of it has been a result tilt from my last session. Poker is a scary game emotionally :(.

From here on out, it's 4 tables opened max for me, and I'm going to focus hard on every choice I make. There's no reason for me to tilt my money away. I know I can do this!

BR is 180.38$ Not bad at all.

EDIT: Ewwww look at that nasty downswing at the end. Gross :(. Really should have just closed out FTP and went to bed. Oh well. Experience is the best way to learn.

Interview with Myself

2009-10-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

I did this because I was bored in Astronomy class. Even though it's incredibly lame in some senses, I feel like it allows me to explain certain things in a more straight forward opinionated way and is an interesting twist on a normal blog. Hope you guys enjoy it! lol.
------------------------------------------------
1. Name, Age & Location
Jack, 20, Los Angeles

2. How were you introduced to poker and how did you decide it was worth pursing as a potential career?
I was first introduced to poker through 5 card draw by family friends when I was a child on camping trips. I was very young and even now 5 card draw is my least favorite poker game (although Razz comes close) so obviously I didn't care much for the game when I was 6 or 7. In fact until I started seeing the World Series of Poker on television around age 14-15 I thought 5 card draw was the only form of poker. WSOP to me was semi interesting at the time but I never gave it much thought other than "wow those guys much be rich!"

Eventually my friends started playing hold 'em and I enjoyed it. Things went from there for me in terms of playing casually. You can read more about my start in my first blog entry if you want some additional details.

I didn't really think of it as a chance to make a lot of money until I started playing on Pokerstars and I was beating the sit and goes there consistently (for awhile)... I realized that if I could beat just one 20$ sit and go a day I was making as much as I would be working 8 hours of minimum wage for a day. Obviously I went broke on Pokerstars because at the time I sucked, but it was sort of an eye opener for me in the sense that I realized that one could make money playing poker online if they were talented enough. Eventually I began reading Liquidpoker.net and reading about people my age playing high stakes online and living a baller sort of lifestyle doing whatever they wanted, travelling, etc and I decided that it was worth trying to achieve. I have a long way to go, but I know that I'm smart enough to at least achieve moderate success, so why not?

3. What limits/games are you playing nowdays?
Online right now I'm playing almost exclusively NL5 (No limit hold em 5, the maximum buy in is 5 dollars per table, the small blind is 2 cents and the big blind is 5 cents) with occasional NL10 and NL25 shots if I'm bored and feel like one or two tabling. If I'm not feeling too great I might sit at a NL2 table but that's very rarely now. That limit is pretty much beat for me. Online, NL5 gave me a lot of problems at first but I believe I've made significant changes in my game since August or so which have turned me into a winning player at that limit. Basically I went into a large downswing and I suddenly realized that if I didn't improve quickly I would have to give up my dream. Luckily it looks like things are coming together for me though :).

Live I'm usually playing tournament style sit and goes with friends at Pablosplace or with school friends on occasion. The buy-in is never more than 10 dollars (usually 5$) and we usually start with 100 chip stacks with 1/2 blinds. So we start with 50 big blinds. As someone who prefers cash games and playing 100 big blinds deep (or deeper) this style gets boring for me. I think it's kind of more luckish and preflop orientated and like there isn't a lot of room for creative play or a loose aggressive style. But still, I go for friends and live experience and that's the game type most people seem to prefer, so what can ya do? You can't play exclusively online anyways. At least I can't. It's fun to be able to lift your hole cards every once in awhile. However, I just got a 1000 piece denomination chip set (chips have numbers on them... 1, 5, 10, 25, 100, 500, 1000) and I think the next game I play with friends will be with 2000 chip starting stacks (One 1000 chip, seven 100 chips, eight 25 chips, seven 10 chips, six 5 chips) with 5/10 blinds for the first level. That will be more interesting for me I think :). Deeper games are just more interesting to me...

4. Stars or FTP?
I've played both, but I like multitabling FTP better. I've spent most of my time there anyways.

5. Favorite poker show/programming?
High Stakes Poker without a doubt! All the episodes are on youtube for free! (http://www.youtube.com/user/gsnvideos?blend=2&ob=4) Commentary is so much better than Poker After Dark, stakes are higher, and in general it's just a funner show. WSOP is ok but I'm not a big fan of tournaments :(. Fun to watch the final table though!

6. What's something you feel people who don't play poker (or who only play casually) don't understand about the game?
I would say a lot of things, but I'll just cover one.

People don't understand that with proper bankroll management the game is rarely "a gamble" and that skilled play always pulls through with a large enough sample of hands. To give an example, my entire bankroll on Full Tilt Poker is 230 dollars. I started with 50 dollars and at that time I played NL2 (buy-in for a table is 2 dollars.) I played NL2 with 50 dollars because 50 dollars is 25 buy-ins for NL2 (50$/2=25.) In general the more buy-ins you have for a particular limit, the less chance you have of going broke and most players recommend 20-30 buy-ins for lower/middle limits. That means I wouldn't have just started playing NL5 with my initial 50$ because I would only have 10 buy-ins for that limit... and you can easily go through a 10 buy-in downswing on occasion... so that's cutting it pretty thin.

So using a 25 buy-in rule you would need 50$ to play NL2, 125$ to play NL5, 225$ to play NL10, 625$ to play NL25 and so on! Which is alot of money! If I told people, "I play games where the big blind is 25 cents" it doesn't sound too impressive, but if I said, "Yeah I have 625$ to drop playing poker" it's another reaction all together. Because people don't understand bankroll management they get the impression you're some sick gambler and it's just not right at all. Bankroll management stops short term luck from breaking me. Playing NL5 with 230 dollars would mean I would have to get stacked (lose all my money on a table) 46 times without winning money before I was broke and that's definitely not going to happen if you are a decent winner at your stake.

So pretty much poker (at lower limits) is all about building you winnings (bankroll) so you can move up to the next limit, and the next limit, and so on. I started at NL2 with 50$, made 75 dollars playing at NL2, started playing NL5 with 125$, made 105 dollars there, and soon I'll be playing NL10. That's the biggest misunderstanding I think probably. You don't just go, "Oh I have 1000 dollars to play poker! I better try my luck at a NL1000 table!".... it just doesn't work like that. It's cold and calculated stuff if you're actually interested in being successful long term.

That's why sometimes when people are like "Wait you play for 5 cent blinds...?" it's hard to explain to them why I would bother playing such a low limit game. It's all about bankroll management and it's all about moving up the limits. If I don't play these small games, I'm never going to be able to build up to the big games. Get it?

(By the way, if you haven't already caught on, when I use terms like NL5, NL2, NL2000, etc.. it refers to both the buy-in for that limit AND the big blind size. NL2 means the BUYIN is 2 dollars. NL5 means the BUYIN is 5 dollars. NL2000 means the BUYIN is 2000 dollars. In the same sense, NL2 means the BIG BLIND is 0.02 cents. NL5 means the BIG BLIND is 0.05 cents. NL2000 means the big blind is 20 dollars!

Using what you now know, what is the buyin for a NL100 game? And what would the big blind be?)

7. So with that in mind, what would your advice be players looking to start?
Well, the must haves in my opinion would be:

Set up a rakeback account through a rakeback site. This will help you so much when you are first starting off AND be a big center of extra money once you are playing higher limits. For instance, on Full Tilt Poker I have a rakeback account that gives me back 27% of the rake I pay for the week. Every friday I get a cash transfer from FTP for a certain amount of money. For example, in the month of October I've played 7,741 hands and I've payed 72.46$ in rake to Full Tilt Poker! That's alot of rake that the site has made off of me and severely cuts into my win rate. If I didn't have a rakeback account, that would mean that 72.46$ would forever be gone. However, with a rakeback account I get 27% of that rakeback! 27% of 72.46$ is 19.56$... so really, I'm getting money just for playing poker, winning or losing. The amount of rake you pay is proportional to the amount of hands you play, so if you play alot of hands, you should be making alot of rakeback. Get it? Rakeback really helps your winrate as you are basically making back 27% of what you are losing to the rake. And rake cuts into your winrate alot more than you think, especially at lower limits. Basically think of it this way... when you take that shot at a higher limit and end up losing a couple buyins, it's that rakeback on friday that helps soften the blow and allows you to rebuild quicker. I imagine that without rakeback I might have gone broke or given up at this point. It's that helpful at lower limits if you are playing considerable amounts of hands. I set up my account through raketherake.com but there are plenty of websites that will offer it, so search around! If you've already made an account on FTP, you can't add rakeback to an existing account.. so I would recommend creating a new account if you can (technically not allowed) or getting rakeback on another pokersite like Cake Poker or Absolute Poker. (Pokerstars has no rakeback... at least not.. the way other sites do it...)
Get on a poker forum, or at the very least talk with people better than you. Even people worse than you. You'll be surprised by what insights you can get from outside perspectives. Not only that, but if you're on a poker forum you'll get tons of support if you choose to blog on them, or post your hands. Even if you DON'T post, you get to read other people's insights and advice. Many winning players post on poker forums and give advice. Find a couple of players that you have identified as high stakes winners and read their advice when people post hand histories. It may not make a lot of sense when you first start off, but eventually you will start to pick up and learn and your game will improve alot. I would say it took me a whole year to really understand what the fuck anyone was talking about on any hand history. No joke, I really sucked.. and that's why when you start, you shouldn't be embarrassed to suck also. Hell, maybe you'll pick up way faster than I did. And remember, when you think you've hit rock bottom, when you think it can't get any worse, you'll see people on the forums who are doing even worse than you can imagine! And you'll see people encouraging him/her to do better! You yourself will feel better knowing that every player, even big winners, go through rough patches and that as long as you keep working to improve, things will be ok. By the way, if you are my age (around 20) I would recommend Liquidpoker.net, but there are other sites like the 2+2 forums and Pocket 5s. Find a place you like and stick with it!
Take it slow, but keep absorbing and learning. Be honest with yourself and unafraid of criticism. Chances are you aren't going to be a winner overnight. In fact I would say I've just become a winner (or at least have learned enough to apply winning tactics) within the last couple of months and I've played 4 years. O_O. It took me awhile because I had to figure it all out by myself.. no one taught me individually beyond the basics (which will not help you much online lol.) I had to go through forums with lingo I didn't know, and read through alot of bad advice on poker websites, before I really started understanding things. Stop chalking up your failure to luck. If you are failing longterm, chances are you are just bad and have huge leaks in your game. Ask someone for help. Watch how winning players play. Figure it out. But admit that you suck. That's the first step. If you are already "really good at poker" in your mind, then you're never going to help yourself. The game is such a mindf*** because it will reward a bad/marginal player with success from time to time, and this success makes people think that their periods of downswings (which is most of their sessions) is just bad luck and coolers. It may be the case for 1000 hands. Maybe 10,000. But chances are anything after that and there's something wrong with your play. Don't be embarrassed! Chances are you ARE a winner, you just need to work on some key concepts :).
Play straight forward. At the lower limits you don't need to check raise. You don't need to slowplay. You don't need to call down with ace high. Just play straight forward! Fancy play at your own risk and use your discretion wisely.
Work on multitabling. This is something you have to be careful about. When you first start off, chances are you suck, so playing more than one table will just make you lose faster, however, I would recommend starting with at least 2 tables. Get used to it folks, it's how you make money online.
YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING! AHHHH!!! YOU DON'T DESERVE SUCCESS! (lol) Be honest with yourself always and always look for help and ways to improve. Every single move you make in this game should have a clear rationalized thought behind it! Don't just do things only based off "feelings"... you should be able to rationally explain every single move you make! This is so important!!!!! Learning this has helped me so much.
Check out these videos. They helped open my eyes up before they were ready to be opened, but if you don't understand a lot of it, they give you an idea of what a successful player does. http://www.donkeytest.com/school.html

And the real basic basics... are.. generally raise 3-4 times the blinds preflop when you are playing online. That means if the blinds are 1/2 dollar your standard raise should be between 6-8 dollars. This is just the proven method. No min raising! No 10Xbb raises (unless you think villain is bad enough to call and you have a strong hand!) After the flop you should raise between one half pot and full pot. In general I would recommend a little more than 2/3rds pot. Maybe more if you have a strong hand. Don't just mash the pot button! Seriously. Think about what you are trying to accomplish with every move you make!

8. So where would you say you need to improve the most?

I think in general I may be a little bit too call stationy against certain types of villains. If I am against someone I consider a donkey I occasionally call down with a hand I should be folding... I just get stubborn. That's just an extension of tilting... I start to think "I shouldn't be losing to this player" and instead of focusing and trying to play better, I end up playing worse and making the wrong choices.

Also, I can tilt if I lose a certain amount of buyin's in a short amount of time. I've been working on this a lot though. It's just getting rid of the "I deserve to win" mentality. I've been finding that when I go on a breakeven or bad session, when I end up taking a break to go hand out with friends or do something else, I usually come back feeling alot more focused, and that helps a ton.

Sometimes I think I'm too aggressive for the stakes I'm playing, but it's working out so far, so we'll see.

9. Where do you see yourself in one year?

Hopefully I'll be playing NL100 or 200 with a bankroll of 2500-5000 dollars. It just depends on how much I learn and dedicate myself. I'll be at a CSU next fall... and hopefully poker will give me alot of extra money on the side. :).

In the same sense, I could definitely see a negative side. Maybe I'll only be at NL50? NL25? Maybe I'll move up to NL10 later this month and find out it's too hard for me to beat and quit poker all together. Who knows? It's way too soon to say. NL100 by next year would really be an accomplishment for me in my mind though so that's what I'll aim for. :)

----------------------------------------------------------

Anyways................

I'll leave you with these two quotes and a thread from 2+2.

"Very few people ever mature... But sometimes... awareness takes place- not very often and always unexplainable. There are no words for it because there is no one ever to tell. This is a secret not kept a secret, but locked in wordlessness. The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for the wordlessness."

"Everybody will eventually run worse than they thought was possible. The difference between a winner and a loser is that the latter thinks they do not deserve it."

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/58/heads-up-nl/success-failure-downswing-mindset-280899/

October so far...

2009-10-07T02:01:00.001-07:00

My month so far has been pretty swingy! Haha. Just played a 2500 hand session which was nice though. I think I've been playing too casually (playing while web browsing and chatting) and because of that I've lacked focus in my game.

Today I really kicked it up into gear. The first 1000 hands were a bit frustrating, but obviously it paid off to keep playing and I ended up 31 dollars up right before some crazy guy overbet shoved his JJ preflop and it held vs my AK. I was UTG and raised to 20 cents.. everyone folded around to me, and the guy who had the Jacks shoved all in for all 5 dollars! lol. Who does that? Looking back, I could have probably folded to such a huge raise to keep my session more successful, but really, I knew that because he shoved, he couldn't have AA or KK. Even QQ in my opinion. All those hands would want to keep their opponent in the pot with a normal sized 3bet... not scare them away with a gigantic raise.

So with that in mind, I figured I was either

A) Up against a AQ/AJ/AK type of hand that villain didn't want to play postflop and I was likely ahead or chopping

B) Against a pair 22-JJ (maybe QQ) that I was flipping my buyin for

C) Up against someone who KNEW I would think "well he doesn't play AA or KK like this I CALL"

I figured C was unlikely because someone who was thinking that far ahead would probably still realize that his plan would usually not pay him off. Anyways, I don't like folding in coin flip situations... in fact, I actually love coin flips.. so, I called, he had Jacks and board didn't help me. And of course, right after doubling up (this was the first hand he had played at the table) he got up and left. Which to me is always the sign of a bad/losing player anyways. So, oh well. Still up 26.68 for the day! Hurray! Here's my session graph (what I played today)

Still... only up 15$ for the month. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum and play some more hands in a concentrated fashion. So far in October I've played 7,741 hands in 7 days. During September I played 26,267 hands... so I've already played 30% of the hands I played in September in the 7 days of October. Hopefully I can maybe double my September volume if I put in enough effort to play longer sessions.

My bankroll is sitting at 227 dollars. That's enough to take NL10 shots... but.. I'm gonna probably wait until next month :). I want to beat NL5 consistently and make sure I don't have any major leaks before moving up.

Anyways, hope you guys are enjoying my blog. If you have any poker questions/topics you want me to talk about let me know! For now, here's some fun/interesting hands I saved from my recent sessions.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752486
Call it a read...

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752480
HOLD! HOLD!

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752477
Little bit scary on the river but I thought a king and better would bet the turn because of the draws out there. His river bet wasn't too big which made it easier to call.. but still.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752464
GET THERE GET THERE GET THERE YEAHHHHHH!

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752461
Easy money :/. I wish everyone stacked off this easy

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752453
Knightraiderr is one of my favorite villains at NL5. He always runs these insanely stupid bluffs that are as bad as they are predictable. His flop check raise got no credibility because I had seen and noted that he was capable of making complex (at least his lines) bluffs with air. Just another example of taking notes on people to make your choices later that much easier.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752445
T5?!?!?! T5!?!??! Gay river. And what the eff are you doing in this hand with T5!?!?!?

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/752382
Another weird read hand where I make the right call and villain gives up on the river

Showdown Value, etc.

2009-10-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

What's up guys. I haven't really played too much poker since my last update which is lame, but I've been spending all the time I've had off from work or school sleeping. I've been really tired recently and I know that sitting in front of the computer to play Full Tilt will be counter productive for me in more ways than one. So why do it? When you play tired, not only are you playing with less of an edge vs. your opposition, but you miss out on spots to learn and better your game. So until I am considerably better at poker I think I would rather not play tired in robot mode. Not to mention when I play tired I'm usually also browsing websites and chatting via instant messenger, so, even more reasons to just save my energy (and bankroll lol) and just rest for another time.

There is however a few things I want to talk about and get out of my system. These things have been on my mind over the weekend. (Showdown value longer than this)

--------------------------------
1) I played a session of about 1500 hands recently 4/5 tabling NL5. This session was very frustrating for me and eventually I became angry/tilted while playing. While at the time my anger seemed justified and understandable, when I look back it was very foolish and hopefully in the future I can use my reasoning (coming up) to stop it from happening again. During the session I felt I kept running into the top of my villains range, that my big hands were either getting cracked or folded around to and that I wasn't making nearly as much as I should at such bad loose tables. However, I realized later, that despite all my running bad I was still even (not losing or making money) for the session until I started tilting. It was only in the last 400 hands where I dropped about 2 and a half buyins... and what this made me realize was that, if I was breaking even during a bad run of cards, that with a decent run of cards I would be making a lot of money. I should have just been ok with breaking even but instead tilted and made some poor plays in pots where I should have just found the fold button.

I think my big mistake was feeling like I was entitled to winning just because the other players were for the most part very bad. This is the wrong kind of thought process and one that I'll try to avoid in the future. When my pocket jacks got owned/valuetowned by T6o on a TT6x board vs. an opponent calling out of position running 63/22 over 200 hands I had to call it a night.

Lesson I learned? Don't tilt! It will make your breakeven sessions losing ones and your losing ones even bigger losers. Sometimes you're just going to run poorly and there's no need to get angry about it. It's only going to make things worse.
----------------------------------

2)Showdown value. Do people even know what that means? Or understand the concept? I've played with otherwise solid players who seem to be completely oblivious to this important concept. I feel like I play people who are just randomly clicking buttons (or throwing around chips if it's live play.) Examples?

I have A6o in a tournament in the SB. UTG limps, its folded around back to me, I make it 5 big blinds to go, BB calls, UTG calls. Flop is 279 with 2 diamonds. Although it's not the best board to Cbet, I felt it would likely not have hit too many hands they could have and since my ace high was likely still the best hand I didn't want to check fold (as I felt BB could take a stab with air if I let him.) Not to mention I had consistently shown up with overpairs or sets in this kind of spot before so I thought I had large fold equity with my good image at the table. BB folded and UTG thought for awhile and called. At this point I put him on 9X or the diamond flush draw and decided I probably wouldn't be able to push him off his hand unless an A or K showed up on a later street. Turn was an offsuit jack and I checked. He checked behind. River was an offsuit 4 (meaning the flush draw didn't complete) and at this point I figured there was a chance my ace high was good and there was no reason to try and bluff him off 9X, A7, whatever, so I checked. When I checked he quickly announced "All in." I was pretty surprised by this move. What kind of hand would he just call the flop with, check and give me a free card on the turn with, but still have enough strength to put me all in on the river? I still had a decent sized stack behind. Why was he pushing this river? Did he have pocket 4's and make a set and want to get value from 9x, overpair, or Jx? Did he miss his diamond flush draw, or have a poorly played (preflop) 8T and think he could push me out of the pot by bluffing? Why would anyone be shoving here? A monster hand (77, 99, 22, JJ+) would always be betting the turn hoping for value and protecting their hand from a potentially scary river card. A solid made hand like 9T, or AK, A7, K9s, would usually just check behind on the river or make a smallish value bet because of SHOWDOWN VALUE (which I'll explain in a second.) In the end I decided this player was on a bluff and that he never played 9X or JX like this so after thinking it through I called with my Ace high expecting to be good alot of the time vs. a busted draw. The villain showed pocket 8's and I was done. After this hand played out I couldn't help but think how bad it was played to be betting pocket 8's all in there. And I'd be willing to bet that if I asked this player why he bet 8's there he would have no idea or explanation other than "I had a feeling about it" or "I thought I had you beat." OK. It was still a really bad play. Let me explain why it was awful 99% of the time.

Thought process #1: "Well he checked the river to me (279J4) and I think I have the best hand with my pocket 8's. I want to get some more value from my hand by betting." Ok, so.. what hand is calling you here that you get value from? 9X and JX is calling a river bet and they beat you. Overpairs are also calling a riverbet and they beat you. Does 7X occasionally call here? Sure.. but that's getting pretty thin. For every one time that you bet small to get value from 7X you're going to be valuecutting yourself the other 9 times when TT+, JX, and 9X calls you (and those hands WILL snap call you on the river.) Did he bet expecting to get value from ace high? Judging from his reaction when I showed my hand, not at all. In general you shouldn't be thinking "Oh I bet he probably has ace high he with no pair and I bet he's going to call this bet!" unless you're name is Phil Ivey, or you're up on that level. You need to have a very specific read and thought process, which I know this villain didn't have making this move. Anyways, moving on. So we can conclude that he couldn't be betting is hand for value because only better hands would call him and all worse hands would fold out, making the bet completely pointless and hugely -EV as you stand to make no money with it, but only lose it or at best gain nothing more than you would have by just checking down with your winning hand.

Was he betting as a bluff? No, because what hand did he stand to bluff out? He never reraised the flop, checked behind on a drawy board on the turn, and shoved the river when it came blank and was checked to? The line makes no sense and 9x, JX, overpair, 2 pair, etc. are going to snap call the all in and own your face all day. You aren't representing any kind of monster other than a very poorly played one, which I thought wouldn't be the case with this player.

In conclusion he probably bet just because "I think I'm good here" which is completely bad. If you think pocket 8's is good there, check behind and take the chips if you're right. Why turn your made hand into a bluff that will get snapped off by better hands all day long?

In the end MY mistake was assuming this player was solid enough to not be bluffing a made hand on the driest board possible. In my mind he either had a monster that he played poorly/weirdly or a bluff... and I was right. He had a bluff.. just.. an awful nonsensical one that happened to beat my hand. Because I assumed this player was better than he was I made an incorrect read (one that only players aware of showdown value would have) and got crushed. In the future I'll probably be checking my set, overpair, JX, 9X, to him and watch him hang himself with a bad hand on a hopeless bet that makes no sense and stands to never win anything 99% of the time. The 1% being me calling him with Ace high the first time I'm in this situation with him.

I still think his reasoning was "OH MAN, HE CHECKED TURN AND RIVER. He must be weak! ALL IN." which again.. is just a first level thinking way to think about poker. Which is bad. If you think I'm weak with a hand as marginal as 8's on that board the correct move is to check behind.

Another example was on a TT863 board. I was playing SnG with some friends and had 89s when this board played out. Essentially what happened was I made a pair of 8's on the flop but didn't want to get put into a bad spot by someone repping the T (them having it or not is somewhat irrelevant.) So I checked my 8's on the flop. Check, check, check. All three players checked. Turn was a 6. Check, check, check. At this point I knew no one had a ten and that I probably had the best hand with my 8's so I planned on betting a blank river for value. The river was a 3 and I bet 2/3rd of the pot. Player A min raised me and player B folded. I knew the only hands that beat me that might have taken that line on the flop and turn but choosing to reraise the river were 33, 66, and maybe a 8 with a better kicker. I felt like most of these hands would have stabbed the turn so I quickly called the min raise (getting great odds to do so) and Player A showed up with 3X. I was baffled! Of course I didn't show my surprise as I took the pot but man! What was Player A, otherwise solid, thinking min raising me on that river? No worse hand would ever call him there and all better ones would call as I did. His raise wasn't for value, but it wasn't a bluff either! If player A felt like his pair of 3's was good there, then the best option would have been to call, because a raise only stands to lose you more money if you are in face holding the worst hand, and gains nothing but a fold if you are correct.

That's the concept of showdown value folks. You have showdown value if a worse hand is never calling you but a stronger hand 90%+ of the time will. If you have AT on a TK29K board and someone bets into you on the river and you reraise because "I don't think he has the king", understand that you are turning your hand into a bluff and that the only hands that are calling you are ones that absolutely crush you. You stand to make no money off your bet, only to lose it, because you get no value from worse hands calling. If you think someone is bluffing, or repping something unlikely and you just "have this feeling" that you're good, just call! That's all I can really say. Of course I'm not saying "don't ever bluff the river".... just... don't bluff if you don't even understand that you're bluffing. If you think you have the best hand.. but you're bluffing at the same time.. then.. how does that even make sense?
--------------------------------------

#3 is it just me or are players from the U.S. online much more passive/call stationy/loose than their european counterparts? The worst players I've played on Full Tilt low limits are without a doubt from the USA. Just something that surprised me O_O
---------------------------------------

Anyways, my BR is at 195$ and I hope to play alot more hands this month than I played last month. Hopefully I can be playing NL10 by November! :D. See ya guys..

-Jack

How not to slowplay Kings. And stop min raising.

2009-10-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

For everytime slowplaying a hand works, there are 4-5 times that it will explode all over your face in a sad shame muck while handing away all your hard earned chips.

Take this fun hand for instance...

Hand #15059977239 begins at 2009/10/01

Dealing down cards

Dealt to jackgck [9c 8h]

LeBaronNL posts the small blind of $0.02

FromAbazashta posts the big blind of $0.05

CLEBER - RGS posts the dead big blind of $0.05

roper76 calls $0.05.

CLEBER - RGS raises to $0.10.

jackgck calls $0.10.

LeBaronNL folds.

FromAbazashta folds.

roper76 calls $0.05.

Dealing Flop [5d Kc Th]

roper76 checks.

CLEBER - RGS checks.

jackgck checks.

Dealing Turn [6h]

roper76 checks.

CLEBER - RGS checks.

jackgck checks.

Dealing River [7d]

roper76 checks.

CLEBER - RGS bets $0.15.

jackgck raises to $0.82.

roper76 folds.

CLEBER - RGS raises to $1.80.

jackgck raises to $5.35, and is all-in.

CLEBER - RGS calls $3.10, and is all-in.

CLEBER - RGS shows [Ks Kd]

CLEBER - RGS has Three of a Kind, Kings

jackgck shows [9c 8h]

jackgck has Straight, Ten High

jackgck wins $9.50

As you can see. This guy min raised his kings, slowplayed the flop and turn, and then put all his money in BAD on the river against my runner runner straight.

Like someone once said to me on Liquidpoker when I was first starting off, "You put none of your money in as the favorite, and instead put it in when you were way way behind. Congrats." When you get a hand like pocket kings and you flop a set, do you really NOT want to put money in the pot? You've been waiting all day for a hand like this! In general, don't slowplay a hand. And if you do, and find yourself getting reshoved on the river, chances are you're holding the losing hand cowboy. Fold em.

And hand number 2:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/750360

Villain min raises his pocket kings, everybody calls, I call because I have great odds, both at the moment and implied.. and of course, I hit the second nut straight, I jam, get rejammed, someone calls, I shove all in, guy with kings calls, and the guy with the nut flush draw also calls. (If someone had J9 I would have cried...)

This is a case of stop min raising preflop. Whenever someone min raises me preflop, I always assume they are bad until shown otherwise. Min raising neither scares people off their trash hands (getting you preflop folds that you often want) or builds a pot for you to win with your premium hands when you do want one or two callers.

In both hands villain got what they deserved in my mind. They played their premium hands poorly and tried to trap and because of it made awful post flop plays and let me get there with my trash hands. Don't be this player! Protect your hand! Build a pot!

Anyways the last two days at FTP have been swingy. My session today started really really really bad, losing 8 buy ins in my first 600 hands O_O. That's pretty bad. Now, I've gotten back 4 buy ins and I'm only down 20 for the day. I had to take a break to cool off after losing 40 dollars though in such a short amount of hands. Tilt can be a scary thing and I knew I wasn't going to be playing my "A" game after losing so much money in so few hands.

Some of the memorable hands from my last two days.. without reads on the villains (I sort of forgot by now)

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/750276

I get owned by the nut flush cooler, when 90% of the time here I have the best hand. This made me cry.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/750267

I play my set of 2's perfectly, inducing a turn shove from the aces and I get rivered big time in an all in pot

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/749960

Interesting/scary hand for me where I make the right call down

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/749840

This hand really really tilted me because we were over 130 big blinds deep and he was playing like such a moron

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/749836

Sick hand! Take down a big pot by jamming.

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/749833

A good call down by me...

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/749827

I try to check raise him off the draw but it doesnt work and I get stacked when I probably could have folded river

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/749819

On this kind of board, don't get all your money in with top pair weak kicker (TPWK)... you're never ahead. Especially in a limped pot

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/749488

Well I put in the money as a 60% favorite :P... nice runner runner for this guy gives him the nuts

that's all I've got for today guys. My bankroll is currently at 186 dollars... and yeah. Hopefully later tonight I can continue to get out of the hole I built for myself earlier today... lol.

Assessing Your Options...

2009-09-30T03:26:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update for right now... too tired to write much more. Let alone play poker (even though I want to! haha)

I've made about 40 dollars in the last 2 days playing on Full Tilt... all in NL5 6max ring games. That's 20 buy ins in 2 days :D. Part of my success is not running bad, but alot of it is finally getting a hang of the limit and refining my play style, which obviously I'm pleased about. There are a few respective regs at the limit who give me some trouble right now, Pokerdad62 for instance along with some others, but I've been doing my best to play smart and get my money in good against them and I believe as I spend more time at the limit I'll be able to exploit their mistakes.

In general the villains I find most difficult to handle who weren't really at NL2 are the loose aggressive ones. Players with stats like VPIP:34 PFR:20 with a 3bet% of around 8-12 really throw me off. In general I hate getting 3bet by an aggressive opponent because I often don't know how to react. If the villain seems tight, obviously I fold or 4bet my strong hands.. but if the villain is 3betting light I often don't know whether to fold, 4bet, or call. In position calling seems like the best bet.. OOP it seems like 4betting is better? Really, it's spots like these that give me the most trouble and I think that until I have a better idea of how I should be reacting, I need to keep focusing and figuring out what works.

Sometimes I get confused.

Say I'm holding AQs in the dealer position. I raise 4xBB (20c) when it's folded around to me, SB folds, BB 3bets to 11xBB (55c). Now what do I do? Obviously I don't think I should be folding. Villain has a high 3bet% over the course of a couple hundred hands and is probably assuming our range for opening a raise on the button is pretty wide. Is villain hoping for a fold here? Or is villain betting for value? And what do I want to do with my somewhat premium hand? If I just call, I feel like I leave myself in a bad position on the flop. Even if the A or Q flops.. I feel like I don't know if I should be calling his Cbet as he would probably fire another bullet on the turn and I would get value from that... or raising it there on the flop. If I raise and get repopped on the flop, am I folding TPTK? Just seems weak/marginal. There's just a ton that villain can represent and I feel out of control of the hand after flatting preflop.

If we 4bet, it seems a little like fancy play syndrome. AQs is really not THAT strong of a hand to be 4betting and would probably be an instafold to all but the craziest villains if I get 5bet shoved. But then 4betting is usually a raise that puts in a large part of your stack. I feel like 4bet folding is an awful thing to do because it can leave you folding to a shove after putting in 2 dollars of your 5 dollar stack in preflop. And 4bet calling a 5bet shove seems bad also.

Obviously, I guess 4betting can have the effect of making a villain fold, if we think his 3betting range is wide. But if villain thinks WE think his 3betting range is wide, he can assume our 4betting range is also wider, and make a 5bet assuming we fold out everything but QQ,KK, AA, AKs.

Clearly, there's not that much thinking going into NL5 play, but sometimes I just get into these spots where I feel like I'm playing without a clear sense of what my goal and place in the hand is. I like to be in control of the action... but if I don't know why I'm making the action, it's bad even IF I'm winning because I don't understand the key concepts behind it.

In times where I'm thinking about these spots, I really wish I had an advanced poker playing friend to talk strategy with and who could explain their opinion well. Obviously, the AQs example seems kind of basic, but when these kind of spots keep coming up over and over, even though I'm beating the limit, I believe that if I move up to the next one, maybe I'll be exploitable/be a losing player. Over my course of playing poker, and indeed in anyone's poker playing experience, you always want to be working on fixing your leaks and trying to piece together the hazy spots in your game.

Right now I'm a winning player at my limit, but the games only get harder as you move up. So it's a little worrying that I still feel like I'm possibly making large mistakes in reasoning.

I think the best way to solve this is to keep reviewing hands and staying focused/paying attention to specific villains. I watched an interview with Phil Galfond today (high stakes player on Full Tilt who goes by the username OMGClayaiken) where he talked about always trying to make the best possible move, all the time. He gave an example of a hand he had discussed with his good friend Tom Dwan around the time he was reaching the nose bleed stakes and still had holes in his game. Apparently the hand was a river spot where Phil had top pair mediocre kicker, facing a pot sized bet on the river. Phil mentioned that, to him at the time, it seemed like a marginal spot where he could either: fold assuming he was holding the losing hand, or call with showdown value against the possible worse hands in the villains range. He then asked Tom what he would do in the same spot. And to Phil's surprise Tom said nether of the options, fold or call, would be his choice. "Shove." Dwan said that he felt shoving was the best option and stated "you never have air here, think about it from villains point of view." The idea of turning his made hand into a bluff on the river never really had come across Phil's mind as he assessed the situation. Now not only would he be winning against villains range that he was already ahead of, but by correctly representing a monster he was also folding out the range of hands that would have beat him had he just called.

In the long run, in this situation, the best choice for making the highest amount of money was to shove.

Obviously, I'm not saying shove rivers with your showdown value hands, or go crazy, but what I am saying is that poker is a game where you have many options and close to infinite information for figuring out the optimal move. While I may not be wise enough to see that shoving that spot is profitable, Dwan is obviously good enough to the point where he can read into the hand and all the actions not only from his point of view, but from villains point of view and take everything into account for maximum expected value.

What I'm trying to say is that, when you're in a trouble spot, maybe you're not considering all the possible actions and outcomes of your choices. That's why sometimes I feel lost facing an aggressive preflop opponent (and in other spots obviously, this is just my example.) I feel like I don't really fully grasp what my goal is in the hand when I want villain to fold, to call, if I feel he has a worse hand, or if I feel like he may have a better hand.

And unlike Phil Galford, I don't have Tom Dwan as my roommate and friend to give me new perspectives on these situations. So it's that much harder work.

Oh well. I'll keep working on it.

And hey, even though it sounds like I'm complaining, my roll is at 150 bucks! After the Take2 bonus comes, it'll be at 200, and from there it's only 25 more dollars until I get to start taking shots at NL10. I'm pretty excited about this and hope that I continue to learn and beat my opponents at the tables.

Anyways, my day:

Not sure why it says "Days Played: 2" :/. Just one day, I promise. :D.

Hopefully tomorrow will be another 15-20 dollar day like the last two. Time to go to sleep for now. Good night.

Overbet Value Shoving The River

2009-09-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite plays in poker is the overbet river value shove. Against a weak opponent it often leaves them confused and wondering what trick is up your sleeve this time. Although I wouldn't recommend doing this often, I'm going to try and show some spots where overbet shoving can be immensely profitable and open up your game/help your image quite a bit.

Example number one...
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/731085

In this hand I'm dealt pocket 2's in a NL5 game. yw84river my opponent is in the big blind (BB), a player in dealer position limps in.. and I'm in the small blind, again with pocket 2s.

Now, normally preflop I would raise deuces if it was folded around to me, or if I was in position, but since I was OOP (out of position) I decided that just calling and hoping to hit a set was fine. Anyways, BB checked and the flop came 2JJ. I flopped a boat! Sweet. Now, this concept of overbet shoving, is kind of in line with my concept of never slowplaying. Some players might slowplay their full house on this flop, trying to keep marginal hands in the pot to extract value later. DONT DO IT FOLKS. On a flop like this with deuces I immediately bet almost full pot. Why? Because if someone has a jack in their hand, at this level they are almost never folding.

Now you may end up not slowplaying a hand like this, betting full pot, having everyone fold and then thinking "well, maybe what Jack told me was wrong.. nobody called my bet, I should have slowplayed it." The answer is no. For all the times everyone folds this flop, you are going to be making 4x the money when someone DOES call with the jack. Let me repeat that. For every 6-10 times everyone folds around to your bet, the one time that someone has a strong hand like trip jacks will more than pay off what your slowplaying is "supposed to do."

Anyways, I get my flop call and dealer folds. There is 39cents in the pot. Now, mind you our starting stacks going into this hand are 10 and 11 dollars! When you flop a full house, you want to play for stacks... not 39c... not a dollar pot... you want to get your ENTIRE stack in in the best way you can plan it out.

So when the turn came a harmless 4, I decided that the only way I was going to get more money in the pot was by overbetting it. So into the pot of 39cent I bet 60 cents. Villain quickly called. By calling the flop and then the turn overbet, it was now extremely apparent to me that the villain had trip jacks.

The river was again a blank and the pot was a small 1.59 dollars. That wasn't even a buy in! Let alone my entire stack. I still had 9.50 something left to go. How was I going to get my stack in when the pot is so small? I could bet something like 1.30 and I knew he would call with trip jacks... I could check to him.. and maybe he would bet out to me and then I could make a 3x raise... but he had played the hand pretty passively thus far. So I started to think... I know he'll call 1.30 on this river... would he call 1.60? Definitely. Would he call 2 dollars? Would he call 5 dollars? My whole stack? Well.. most people at this limit can't fold trips...

It became obvious that my best play was to shove the rest of my stack, make it look like a bluff, or a missed draw, or possibly a smaller jack, or just a crazy play from a weird player and pray he called. And villain eventually DID call! Showing up with trip jacks nine kicker v. my deuces full of jacks for a 20 dollar pot and a sick double up in a hand where a standard player may have gotten something like a 3 dollar pot.

Again, the slowplayer in you may say "well.. ok it worked that time, but most of the time you wont get called" and to that, I say think of it this way...

If you think villain calls 1.50$ 80% of the time, 0.10$ 99% of the time, and 10 dollars 30 percent of the time.. it's worth it to bet out all 10 dollars and take the 30% than to take the surer bet (1.30$ or 10 cents) because over the long run, you can expect to make more money in this situation by overbetting. Basically, when you are almost 100% dead sure your opponent has a strong hand that you have beat, consider the overbet shove. It won't work as much vs. a strong player, but for a basic ABC poker player, it throws them off guard and will often get you paid off big.

Even if your opponent folds, it leaves yourself with a somewhat crazy image that will get you paid off later. They will be asking themselves later "why did that crazy guy shove his whole stack at me? he must be an overaggressive fish"...

And example number 2
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/748995

This hand is a little bit debatable, because normally I wouldn't be calling with 5K OOP... but this player seemed to keep getting his/her stack all in after the flop, so I thought with the implied odds it was worth the call for the chance to win their at the time huge stack.

I'm actually running out of time to type since I'm in my school computer lab, but this is the same concept. I overbet the pot on the river for many reasons

a.) this person went to showdown often and seemed to be happy getting their stack in frequently
b.) if they had trip nines I figured they would never fold their hand
c.) they could possibly just think I'm crazy and make a hero call with a jack or overpair
d.) I'm just kind of crazy like this sometimes at tables.
e.) if they had the ace high flush or boat, I would just cry myself to sleep and tell myself it was a cooler

Anyways, they actually ended up calling with a much better hand than I had anticipated, (the jack high flush O_O) but that's all the more reason to occasionally overbet value shove. Sometimes you catch villains in a spot like this where folding a jack high flush seems crazy!

Adding this kind of move to your poker arsenal will greatly boost your ptbb at your limit and your poker playing ability in general. Even if you choose to never do it, this article may also help you understand when you yourself are getting value shoved. And on TOP of all this, if someone knows you are capable of a river value shove, you open yourself up to occasionally river bluff shove (obviously you have to be extremely careful with this and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a strong read on the player and they know you are capable of the move.. ie. dont do it online.. I'm just pointing it out.)

Oh man poker is such a fun game :). Overbet value shoving is probably my favorite move in the whole game, along with playing combo draws and representing an ace or king across multiple streets... along with heads up play.. along with.. well.. alot of things :P.

Another funny overbet.. http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/748818

Anyways, my bankroll is at 132 dollars now! I played alot last night and got my roll up to 125... then tried to sleep.. woke up and took a NL10 shot.. which was going ok, but I made a bad call vs. a villain I considered (and who was) fishy and ended up losing 14 dollars which was like "awwww mannnn lame!!!".... but... I went to the computer lab inbetween classes.. started playing with 108 dollars... and in about a hour and a half had 132! I think NL5 is easy street for me now, and it's only a matter of time before I hit NL10.

One thing I enjoyed about playing at school besides the big ass monitor (really helps you multitable) was playing with my Pokertracker HUD.. sometimes it's nice to not have to worry about someones 3bet% or turn aggression when you're playing them.. it's good to take off the training wheels and test your abilities while multitabling :). One thing I didn't like about playing without pokertracker is that my hands didnt get tracked! So I end up not having them in my monthly graph... :(. Oh well.. I guess playing well is more important than showing it off in some graph anyways.

Oh well, with the Take2 bonus I hope to be at 190 dollars by the end of September... that would be huge!

-jack

lol?

2009-09-27T23:25:00.001-07:00

*Click image to resize it*

I can never figure out why people try to "make moves" in limped pots like this. The guy had no reason to bluff, had nothing invested in the pot, and was hardly ever getting someone off of a 4, let alone a higher pocket pair or ace. Instead he chose to bluff his entire stack for no reason.

If the pot was raised, not only would I not be in it, but I would be giving him alot more credit for a hand if I had accidentally clicked call preflop with my Q4o.

This is also a good place to mention.. try and keep notes on players you're sitting with. My note on him when this hand happened was "questionable post flop...", meaning that he had shown up with some weird/plain bad holdings while I watched him involved in pots with other players. Because I had placed this note on him earlier, this turned his 3bet shove into a snap call for me as opposed to a "hmmm..." *make a funny face* muck. If I had viewed him as a good player I would never be calling this spot, as he could show up with a higher pocket or an ace. Because I had taken notes and payed attention to the play around me, I made an easy profit with almost no risk involved.

So in short, take notes, profit. And also, don't put on the moves in a limped pot folks. Especially with a poor table image like this guy had.

95% of the time.. you're not telling a believable story at all.

- Jack

Applying Pressure

2009-09-26T01:37:00.000-07:00

Mmm, just played a hand at Pablosplace I need to think out. I had 79s, flop was 867 rainbow with a spade.. Paul lead out for 18 chips..

Basically I had an open ended straight draw, backdoor flush draw, and a pair. When he raised 18 I thought that this was a perfect opportunity to add chips to my stack as regardless of him calling a reraise from me, I had a ton of equity vs. the possible hands he'd lead that flop with. I decided that in order for this semi-bluff to work, I had to set myself up for a shove on the turn, and I had to raise his bet of 18 by a significant amount. I ended up raising to 54.. which looking back, was probably a bit too little to make my turn shove correct mathmatically.. but really, I figured he would have folded most hands to the reraise.

So, in my mind.. I would usually be gaining 18 chips just from him folding often. And if he called, I was still in a great position to have the best hand by the river/he would probably fold the turn.

Against his range my 79s was...

48.28% to win against TPTK (A8)

47.37% to win against AA-JJ

45.46% to win against bottom two (76) (and 7.68% to tie for the pot)

40.20% to win against top two (78)

32.42% to win against TT

31.82% to win against bottom straight (45)

28.48% to win against bottom set (66)

26.97% to win against top set (88)

6.97% to win against top straight (12.12% to tie)

HMMMM

Well, the turn was another 7, which really dropped my outs for the river since he has bottom set and had just made a boat. At that point I was on 15% favorite to win by the river, and obviously he called my shove with his full house.

The turn was a meaningless 10 which gave me the straight.. but it didn't matter T_T.

Now one may look at those percentages and say "Gee.. why would you raise flop when you are hardly a favorite vs. any of those hands?" And sure, that's a valid question to ask in my opinion. I could JUST call the flop and maybe fold turn if I don't improve. But poker's best players are all about applying pressure and creating situations for themselves. Say the turn was a 4 or 9. I wouldn't have made my hand, but if I shoved, Paul would have had a hell of a decision on his hand.

If a 4 came: any 5 beat his set

If a 9 came: any 5 or 10 beat his set

Add that to the fact that if a 5 or T came down, I would have a straight and he would still be put in a position where he had to make a very tough choice on the turn. Either making a very good laydown, or handing me his chips on a platter.

I believe poker is about making your oppenants make mistakes and applying pressure. Although it sucked to bust out this hand when I originally had a large chip lead in this home game, I don't really regret this hand so much.

Any 4,5,9 or 10 would have put a ton of pressure on Paul to fold. Other cards like, any blank card low card I shoved over would make it seem like I could already have the straight... a high card could have made him more likely to call, maybe thinking I hit two pair (?), but who knows. Basically any card that didn't pair the board was a good card for me to shove on the turn with (if I knew Paul's hand) and I'm pretty happy about that play over all. If the turn was a 4 or 9

Paul could have folded after giving me 54 chips on the flop, which would have been a huge mistake (and if he called I still had equity). And if the turn completed my straight Paul could have folded after giving me 54 chips on the flop (still a huge win for me) or made the mistake of calling and giving me a huge double up/crippling his chances of winning.

So really :P. Proud of that play, although I wonder if I could have not shoved turn with the board pairing. Hmm. Probably not since I raised flop so high and he could still have 2 pair or an overpair.. both hands that my trip 7s were ahead of.

Little annoyed that we let Seely rebuy so many times though :(. Next time I think if we start assuming there's no rebuys, I'm gonna stick with that. I had a good chance of winning when Seely busted, he tilted a ton of chips to other players when he rebought each time, and in general I think I preform much better without rebuys in SnG situations. I like to have a clear idea of how much longer its going to run and what I have to do to win. Not that it really annoyed me that much.. I still had fun playing. I think Seely just getting so angry annoyed me a bit... I guarantee I never tilt like that a home game, ever. Online is different though haha

Oh well. No Full Tilt for me tonight. I've played enough poker today.

----------------------------------------------------

EDIT: Also... for you Paul and Tim :P. Love you guys!

http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-forums/7/what-is-a-3bet-and-4bet-2905103

"The blind is a forced bet, so the BB is the first bet. When you open raise you are putting in a second bet and when you open raise and someone reraises you they are 3betting you by putting in the 3rd bet. If you shoved you would then be 4betting."

ie. A 4bet is not the same thing as a 4xBB raise :P

Fun NL25 hand + graph

2009-09-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

Well, since my last update I've played about 2028 hands of poker and have made about a 34 dollar profit. My bankroll is currently at a respectable (in my mind!) 122 dollars and after I finish this blog I plan on putting in another 1000 hands or hour and half.. whatever comes first, and hopefully improving my score.

I've decided to jump into NL5 and I'm planning on 4 tabling with a stop loss of 3 buyins. If I lose three buyins at NL5, I'll drop to NL2 and continue from there. I don't know what it is about NL5, but the stake absolutely crushes me for some reason. When I first got there, I ran extremely far below EV (30 buyins below EV at one point according to pokertracker!) and tilted off much of my bankroll. Now, everytime I take a shot at the limit, I seem to lack confidence, cards, or the ability to make the right plays. Tonight, I feel like it's time to reverse my fate. I'm going to play tight, focused poker, make good reads, and not suffer from fancy play syndrome. Maybe if I'm lucky I can end tonight with 150 dollars in my roll. Who knows.

I've been happy with my NL25 shots also. Today I won a 52 dollar pot (which gave me about a 25 dollar profit) by choosing the right game and sitting to the left of the right person.

CLICK TO SEE THE HAND

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/747638

(Pot size doesn't change from street to street for some reason.. FTP problem right now I think)

Normally I would be betting out this flop with the flush draw on the board, but the player behind me had been cbetting fairly consistently and my plan was to let him lead since I figured he would do so enough of the time being the preflop aggressor. Because he would fold most of his Cbetting range to a donkbet (look it up) from me I felt that checking would be most profitable (EV+) in the long run... I'm pretty sure I'm correct on that. :P. I couldn't go wrong just betting this board though, so I guess that's something to think about. Anyways, obviously, when 77ihatepoker77 checked behind I was a little upset that I gave a free card and missed a street of value all at the same time, but I figured it wasn't the end of the world as long as the FD didn't complete.

The turn was decent for me because it gave the villains another flush to chase, but bad because it was unlikely that a 4 would help their hands, and since they checked the flop, I assumed that they would likely check fold the turn without the flush draw (which I thought someone might bet on the flop anyways.) So, I bet 2 dollars into 2.55 hoping that maybe someone picked up either a 4, had a king, was on the club draw, or had picked up a diamond draw and that I could pick up a little value. The original raiser 77ihatepoker77 folded and Slasha4 called.

Before the river card came, I thought to myself that there were many scare cards for my hand and that if I was bet into, I would have a hard time setting up a range because I had played passively on the flop. I thought that if turn was a diamond OR club he can represent the flush either way and wasn't happy about the idea of having to guess which one was more likely if he bet big on the river.

The river was the ace of spades and at that point I was fairly sure I had the best hand. Slasha4 bet into me about half pot and I had to decide whether to call or raise... all the flush draws had missed.. could he have had a nut flush draw, missed, and hit his ace and be trying to get value off of a king? Did he have a 6 in his hand? Did he hit the turn and make a boat with pocket 4s?

In my mind it was unlikely that he would have a 6 because I felt like he would have reraised me on the turn with the double flush draws out there... so I wasn't too worried about kicker problems... in the end I felt like there were many possibilities of hands that I had beat and that I could get value from, so I reraised him a little less than 3 times his river bet. I thought A4, Kx, Ax, were all parts of his raising range (looking back, wouldn't Kx bet the flop...?) so I decided it was worth raising for value, as opposed to calling down with showdown value myself. When I got reraised I admit that I was a little bit scared of a possible full house or higher kicker, but when I decided to reraise the river, I did it with the intention of calling a shove... so I called the shove and he showed up with pocket nines. How weird. I wonder if he shoved for value or as a bluff? I mean, it had to be a bluff, because surely he knew I would probably call down with an Ace if I rivered it?

So strange.

Moving on though, I think that if there's one thing important I did in that hand, its that when I made my river decision, I made it with a plan for possible outcomes. When considered raising or calling the river, I asked myself "Well if he shoves, are we folding?", "How often does he shove here with a worse hand", "Is he capable of a bluff shove?", etc. By reraising, you open yourself up to be value shoved by a better hand, or even bluff shoved and if you havent thought out your possible options beforehand, you can end up making a very costly mistake in a very deep pot. I think many poker players I know could benefit from thinking ahead. Always ask yourself, "Why am I raising here?" and consider the pros and cons of your actions. Are you raising for value from worse hands? Are you raising expecting a fold enough of the time to make your raise EV+? This stuff can't be stressed enough when playing online with little to no reads.

In the end I made the right choice, because I assumed this player wasn't too great, but I honestly believe that at higher limits that a shove will become uncallable, and that because of that I will just flat the river in a situation like this against an opponent I consider competent.

Because really, at that point my trip 6's are nothing more than a bluff catcher. I wouldn't expect him to show up with pocket aces there if he was good, but I could see pocket 4s or even A6 the boat destroying me in a similar situation.

Because really, what worse hands call my river 3bet? Against a good opponent, almost none. Even a lower 6 would have trouble finding a reason to call (although they probably would...). So really, the range of hands that he calls the 3bet with are next to 0. He's either going to fold a worse hand, or he's going to shove a better one. By 3betting this river against a good oppenant you're burning money because your river bet will almost never get paid off and when you get action it'll be by a better hand.

THATS, why I considered just calling there. I assumed again, that he was bad, so I 3bet/called for value :).

Anyways, I'm going to end this. Hope everyone is doing well. Maybe you guys can post an example of a hand you thought you played well, or poorly? Thoughts and comments, always appreciated. Off to play some NL5 :D

This month

Last 3 days

History and Progress

2009-09-23T04:41:00.000-07:00

Well readers, time for my first blog post about poker....

First, because this is my first blog post ever, I feel like I should give you guys a brief history of my poker playing experience. Or what I would one day like to call a career :). Anyways, my name is Jack, I'm 20 years old and I started playing with friends in high school for fun, 5 dollar sit and gos... 50BB to start with, 1/2 blinds. We still play these games on occasion, although I am the only one who really takes poker seriously anymore. Like most things in my life that I find interesting and competitive, I strive to be the best and to compete. At first I just played the game for fun, assuming it was mostly luck in the long run, but at the time, there was one player in our game, Michael Price, who seemed to win almost everytime we played. The natural competitor in me strived to figure out how he was winning so I could beat him and the game.

Of course the first place I turned was the internet to give me some strategies and techniques. What it told me was "play tight!", "play XYZ in this position and ABC in this position", etc. By playing tight and getting in my chips "good" I found I was often able to win home games. Not all the time of course, but I had alot of fun playing and thought I was getting pretty good.

After my first year of college, during the summer, I decided it was time for me to deposit 50 dollars into Full Tilt Poker and see how my luck went. (this is a little more than a year ago)

Let's just say, it went so bad, I don't even remember what happened. I don't remember if I played in cash games.. or SnGs.. or tournaments.. I just know, I lost that money fast. Probably in 2 days. "Why?" I remember asking myself, "Why did I lose that money?" I didn't even believe it was possible, although I was pretty unphased because

A) I told myself the money didn't matter before I deposited it

B) I had little expectation of doing well

What DID phase me however was, "How did I lose that money?" I didn't care about the money or why I lost it... I cared about HOW I did. What was wrong with my play?

It's important to not in my opinion, that around this time in my life (the couple of weeks I first started playing poker online) I was in a pretty bad state of mind. I had just broken up with a girlfriend of 3 years, was in the middle of a long summer break, and working a job I didn't like at all. Not to mention my parents and brother were on a 2 week vacation.. so I was home alone with nothing to do, up all night most nights. This all combined ment I was pretty anxious to try my luck out again.

Because I didn't want to deposit another 50 dollars into Full Tilt Poker (they had a minimum deposit of 50 dollars at the time) I researched new sites and ended up at Pokerstars. I loved Pokerstars! To me the layout looked so much better than Full Tilt, I loved that I could customize my tables, I loved the look... everything just felt better. And I ran better too! I deposited 25 dollars into the site and dabbled in some cash games, running up to maybe 37-40.. and then started playing 5 dollar sit and gos. I had great success in these sit and gos.. the style was the same as the home games I had been playing for years, and the people playing them were alot worse than my friends. All I had to do was wait for a premium pair, AK, or AQ, and shove over a raise, or raise myself and I would usually end up in 1st or 2nd.

Obviously, I loved SnG's at this time. I thought they were an awesome way to make money and I had alot of fun playing at PS. I ended up running my bankroll to about 140 dollars in a few days of playing and thought I was on top of the world. Of couse, I didn't understand bankroll management (I had never heard of it) and went broke. I started winning the 5 dollar SnG's on a regular basis (20 to first each time) and started playing the 20 dollar SnGs. I placed 2nd in my first one, and then busted in my second one, went on tilt and played in a 40 dollar SnG, and eventually lost my entire roll in about two nights of tilting it away.

To this day I wonder if those Pokerstars SnGs are still as soft as they were when I first started playing. Maybe I'll go back and check them out sometime :P

Anyways, after busting on Pokerstars, I decided to quit online poker. Clearly I was a sucker at the game and didn't understand it well enough to play outside of my friend group. I was disheartened, but at the same time, like when I busted on Full Tilt, the money didn't really matter. I had told myself long before depositing that it was an amount that I could afford to set aside and lose.

Around this time I started to play poker at Pablosplace. They really opened up my game at that time. I remember in my first game there, Andrew Seely open shoved preflop after rebuying (something like this) and I thought for a second and called with pocket 2's. He showed pocket aces and Paul said something like "we have a calling station here!" Looking back, it's so funny to think I was that bad to just snap off a huge raise preflop with deuces, and think I was good. As I played more at Paul's place and with my friends I grew more confident in my playing abilities. About halfway through the year in my spring semester I decided to try and apply for a freeroll on Absolute Poker. I was accepted for a 50 dollar bankroll and was happy to be playing online again.

This time I promised myself that I would try and play smart and account for myself. I was starting to learn a little bit about bankroll management and deeper strategy from a website called liquidpoker.net... although I was still unable to understand most of the lingo and ideas presented there. I started with 50 on Absolute and grinded it to about 90 in the next month or two playing mostly 0.1/0.2 cash games. I ALSO was amazed to learn you could play more than one table! I read people on liquidpoker.net talking about playing up to 24 tables! O_O. I read about people playing and making a living off of poker that weren't superstars.. talking about taking vacations, being in college, playing WSOP and EPT and WPT and making 100,000's a year JUST playing poker and I was truly amazed.

I mean, all these people were around MY age and playing for hundred dollar pots on a daily basis, all giving advice FOR FREE on the internet for me to read. They acted like the money they were playing for was nothing. WOW I thought. Some played NL50, some played NL400, and some played NL5000! Up until reading about people on liquidpoker, I really thought it was impossible for someone my age to make a sustainable living off of playing poker. I thought that it took years, maybe a lucky tournament win, and some magic to play poker well. I thought it was fair tails. Boy was I wrong.

Seeing that this was attainable made me work 5 times as hard to try and put in alot of hands.

That was the other thing I learned. People played ALOT of hands. I would look at people's blog posts about their "session" and see a graph showing their results over 8000 hands. People's monthly graphs could have up to 140,000 hands. I was utterly amazed. I would guess that I hadn't played much more than 8000 in my whole life up to that point and people were doing it in a day. I remember posting my lifetime results on Absolute Poker right when my downswing started.. it had about 9000 hands on it... and I had FORCED myself to 4 table and I had FORCED myself to play at least 2000 hands a day for a couple of days. It was SO hard for me to do so.

By the way, it reminds me of being at pablosplace one time, and having Tim say something about how an internet player said something about "playing more hands than Doyle Brunson" and how he thought the internet player should shut his mouth and was sort of implying that it wasn't possible. At the time I laughed with him about it and agreed, but looking back, I have no doubt that many internet players have played more hands than Doyle has in terms of lifetime amounts. I would guess that a real internet grinder plays 1.5-2 million hands in a year if they are dedicated. To me that is so sick. (Not to take away from Doyle though, he is sick too and the reason internet players are around today :P)

Anyways, back to my story folks. Basically, I ran my bankroll on Absolute Poker to about 90 dollars and moved up limits to .05/.10 and then ended up down to about 30 dollars after failing epically at the limit. After this, I quit. I still have about 30 dollars sitting on Absolute Poker to this day. (Maybe I should go lose it at the Blackjack tables there :P.) I couldn't understand how I was losing and in general I hated the interface at the site, and I decided again, to quit, at least momentarily so I could figure out what was wrong.

Around this time I had started dabbling in Indian Casinos a little bit... I went to play in a 35 dollar tournament with a friend at Chumash, where I busted with AQo v QQ after losing a bunch of chips bluffing at a monochrome board.. trying to get someone to lay down a hand. Anyways, I busted in the tournament but ended up making about 130 dollars in the cash game there. To me it was really exciting, and surprisingly easy to do so. I just played good hands, and got my money in at good times. I enjoyed the experience and was happy to do well in my first live cash game.

Speaking a little bit more about live play, I've probably broken even over my life time. I've been to the casino and played in ring games 4 times in my life. I made 130 the first time, got felted for 60 dollars the second time, lost 9 dollars the 3rd time, and 70 the most recent time. So overall, I'm a little bit down in cash games, although I would say its been mostly the result of bad luck... the most recent time I went, I was very confident about my game, came in with about 140 dollars, chipped up to 230 without many showdowns and then got crushed by a turned full house against my trips.

Just for fun, to run through the hand. I had 89o in the BB. Someone in middle position called, the dealer called, and SB completed. I had been raising pretty liberally preflop and had a strong image so I decided that I was happy to see a flop for free with my 89o.. as opposed to raising and getting called/being stuck out of position (OOP) with a mediocre hand if someone called. Anyways, the flop came A88 rainbow and obviously I was very excited. SB bet out 2/3 pot and I decided this was a perfect place to get some value from an ace... and I just called. I thought this made my hand pretty transparent (someone just calling with people behind them on the flop usually indicates a strong hand) but I also assumed the players were bad enough to not pay attention. The person in middle position folded and dealer called. The turn was the K (forgot the suit)... the small blind lead out weakly, I reraised and the dealer position shoved all in for about 70 dollars more. At this point I was somewhat worried that I could be outkicked, but knew that I couldn't fold trips in a live game with so much money in the pot already AFTER slowplaying flop. So I thought there was a chance I was beat, but I didn't see too many hands that were ahead so I called. He flipped over pocket kings for the boat, river was a 9 giving me the smaller boat, and he proceeded to berate my play and call me "little kid" the rest of the night. Really, the guy had annoyed me before and I had identified him as the fish on the table, but SERIOUSLY that was like the most HORRIBAD way to play pocket kings ever and I was in shock that he was for real. I kept my mouth shut and eventually left with about 70 dollars, but man was it hard not to tell that guy how full of shit he was for trying to imply I was a bad player when he completely completely butchered his hand.

To go through what was wrong in my mind. Slowplaying kings?!?! Slow playing has got to be the thing that blows my mind the most at low limit games. He slow played his pocket kings AFTER someone had limped middle position FROM the DEALER POSITION and let me and SB see an extremely cheap flop. That play is idiotic in its self. When you have a big pair like AA, KK or QQ you want to ISOLATE one or MAYBE two players because you become the big favorite to be ahead postflop. You almost never want to slowplay a big hand like that in a crowded field where your hand becomes much less of a favorite to flop the best hand.

Then the flop comes A88 and small blind bets, I call, and middle position folds. Holy god. He flat calls kings on the worst flop ever after another player flat called (implying a ton of strength) and is probably thinking "oh man why did I slow play here" and the sucks out on the turn with the king and proceeds to tell me what a little kid I am and how I can't hang with the big guys. No punk, you're the gambler type that I'm going to felt over and over again with better post flop and pre flop play. He two outered me but honestly, I feel if the king didn't come he still would have called me down to the river, which is hilariously bad and makes me feel better about my live results in general. I was running over that table and likely would have had 500 dollars after winning that pot. :(. Oh well, life goes on.

Hopefully that gives you a better idea of why I hate limping and slowplaying and passive plays in general.. it just gets you in awful spots and people who do it often have an overinflated sense on how good they are at the game.

Anyways, back to my history.

I stopped playing online for awhile, was playing at pablosplace mostly. Then ended up finding out one of my elementary school friends Jeff Kim was playing PLO on Full Tilt at middle stakes online. I was really impressed that a friend I knew was doing well online and played poker with him at his house. I came with 20 dollars that night, went up to about 80 playing cash NLHE, then we started playing PLO (a game I really didn't know at the time and still don't play well) and I lost all of it with the underfull vs the overfull... which I know now is how suckers lose their money at omaha (Remember what I said about liking to be the best at what I compete in? Right after that night I went out and bought the highest rated Omaha book and began working on my omaha game :P.) Now THAT was a learning experience, both in Omaha and being careful with other forms of poker/my money.

After that night however, I asked Jeff if he could spot me 50 dollars on Full Tilt and that I would pay him back later. Jeff of course said that was fine (I assume it was pocket change to him at the time, although I've never asked his BR size) so I set up a rakeback account on Full Tilt Poker and he transferred me the 50 bucks which leads to about where I am now.

When I got the 50 dollars on Full Tilt I was intent that THIS was going to be the time it worked. I was really going to figure out how to play and I was going to play well. I had gotten rakeback set up, I had this great learning source liquidpoker, and I was disciplined enough to do well. I knew I could do it this time. I started playing .01/.02 and immediately crushed the limit. I would 4-6 table and autopilot, taking advantage of position and my abilities post flop to win considerable money (for the limit.) I took my bankroll up to 100 dollars, winning about 40$ in my first 5000 hands. When I reached 100 dollars, that gave me 20 buy ins for the next limit, .02/.05 and I decided I should move up.

Now, it would seem that everytime I move up, I lose. In the next 1000 hands at NL5, I lost about 60 dollars. I was in shock. A lot of it was being coolered and near the end, alot of it was losing control and tilting. I felt like there was nothing I could do to win this stupid game.. I was just upset and lost most of the money in about 1 session. Looking back I can see that I should have set up a stop loss for myself when moving up limits. It's so unbelievably stupid to lose so much of my bankroll in one session. When I look back at my first experience with Full Tilt, my PS experience, and my AP days, most of my money was lost very quickly in a few sessions of tilt and stupidity. This is something I've promised myself I will never let happen again.. and something that I think will help my poker money making greatly.

Luckily rakeback and Full Tilt's take2 bonus money helped me get back to 50. So there I was, ready to again, start over. And so I did. I dabbled in NL2 and NL5, again tilted ALOT in NL5, rebuilt and here I am with about 104 in my account. God, its been a tough road to get here.

I would say, it's only in the last month that I've been good at poker. And by good in poker, I mean, controlling myself and my bankroll management, controlling myself post flop, and being smarter about position. Position is everything in this game. Aggression is everything in this game. And up until you hit NL400 value is everything. I'm always trying to get maximum value for my hands. God. This game is great.

I didn't start to even really understand the game until I started at Absolute Poker in spring semester. I can't even remember how I would play before then to be honest. And looking back at some of the hands I posted on liquidpoker when I was still playing on Absolute, I was still making horrible horrible mistakes. I think being honest with yourself is one of the most important things a poker player can do, and I can honestly say I sucked so much even as recently as 2 months ago. My game knowledge was somewhat there, but my feel for position and how to truely "play" was gone. One of the first eye openers for me was JohnnyCosmos NL100 video... it was truely amazing understanding what he was playing and why he was playing.. and it really got me out of my shell as a poker player. From there I have just been absorbing and absorbing.

In addition to all the online resources I've read, I picked up Ace On The River by Barry Greenstein and I think its given me one edge over the typical online grinder. I've been using this to help myself get out of NL2. I have huge huge huge respect for Barry btw.

Anyways, this huge mass of text leads me to where I am now. I figure I will be leaving NL2 perminately by the end of October at the latest, and hopefully sooner. My BR is 104 right now, will be 154 when I get my Take2 bonus from FTP, and that will give me a great roll for playing NL5. Not to mention, what I took away from Barry's book was that, if you have the money for it, and you see a good game, you should sit at it, even if you are risking a large amount of your BR. He talked about opportunity and taking it when it comes. The only thing stopping me from being a NL25 player is the money. In terms of general skill, I feel like I have an edge at the limit. So why not play a few hands at NL25 against the weaker players? Recently I have been doing that a little bit and its definitely helped me feel more comfortable with money in front of me, and has helped my game selection quite a bit. I will sit to the right of someone I've identified as a fish, play until they leave, and usually leave with some money myself. I believe this aggessive BR strategy at higher limits coupled with solid play/volume at the lower limits, will help me boost my bankroll to a respectible 4 digits perhaps within the next 6 months. That is, if I don't tilt it all away.... :P. At this point I would be very disapointed if I did though, so I don't think I can afford to keep dicking around in this game.

If I want to be successful, the only person I can trust is myself. I am driven to beat this game.

So if you took the time to read this huge blog, thanks. My name is Jack, I've probably played 80,000 hands in my life max and I've probably only somewhat understood the game for 20000 of those hands.. so hey!

This month I've played about 14,000 hands, so it makes you think.\

Anyways guys. Its way too late, and I spent way too much time writing this. My mind is always on poker now and how to improve myself in the game. In the next couple of months I want to work on my hand reading abilites, hand volume (playing more hands) and making better folds (has to do with hand reading :P.) Oh yeah, running good would help too :D

-Jack

PS. I think it's safe to say that I am thankful for all the times I've "run bad" in my poker playing career. All its done is make me stronger as a player and make me reconsider how good I actually am. A few months ago I thought I was really good.. boy was I wrong. Now I think I can BE good, but its going to be awhile. Got to keep my eye on the prize :)