YTD: +$28301.74
Well before I could even bask in the glow of a good start to the month, I went on a rare but deadly tilt-fest. 6k in 6 hours. At least half of that just money set fire to. I got into one of those moods, impossibly dangerous online, where the money was meaningless. I might just have well been playing a video game. Anyway I put the brakes back on a won a little back yesterday. Whilst treading water again at Party I saw this massive 3.5k pot in the 400 buyin game. No that is not a typo:
***** Hand History for Game xxx *****
$400 PL Omaha Hi - Wednesday, March 09, x EDT 2005
Table Table 36798 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 3: AwwwNutz ( $1605.85 )
Seat 8: MMMIII ( $409.8 )
Seat 9: chiseler ( $1526.4 )
Seat 2: Hero ( $573.6 )
Seat 5: BERDYFISH ( $473.7 )
Seat 10: PimpOwnage ( $417 )
Seat 6: Dr__Q__ ( $390 )
Seat 7: ALCHEMIST33 ( $200 )
Seat 1: pannekoek111 ( $76 )
Seat 4: greeengoat ( $192 )
PimpOwnage posts small blind [$2].
pannekoek111 posts big blind [$4].
ALCHEMIST33 posts big blind [$4].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 5c 8h Kd Js ]
>You have options at Table 36695 Table!.
Hero folds.
I told you I was playing better!
AwwwNutz calls [$4].
greeengoat folds.
BERDYFISH folds.
Dr__Q__ calls [$4].
ALCHEMIST33 checks.
MMMIII folds.
chiseler raises [$26].
This guy had been like Chufty on speed. I had a vague suspicion that it was Darwinism from Stars, but I couldnt figure why he would be playing so small.
PimpOwnage calls [$24].
pannekoek111 folds.
AwwwNutz calls [$22].
Dr__Q__ calls [$22].
ALCHEMIST33 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 4c, 2s ]
PimpOwnage checks.
AwwwNutz bets [$109].
Dr__Q__ calls [$109].
chiseler calls [$109].
PimpOwnage folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
AwwwNutz bets [$436].
Unless Awww has at least top trips, this is a bet of death here. He will only be called by better hands. The J is a magic card because this is a raised pot and the TJ combination is likely to hit a lot of hands. But Aww is Scandinavian :)
Dr__Q__ is all-In. (roughly 255 ish)
Q is no idiot...this is a real death knell for Aww's hand if he is pushing two pair.
chiseler calls [$436].
** Dealing River ** [ Ac ]
AwwwNutz is all-In. (about 950ish)
chiseler is all-In. (called the bet)
AwwwNutz shows [ 4d, 8d, 7s, Tc ] two pairs, tens and fours.
Dr__Q__ shows [ 4h, Jh, 4s, Jc ] three of a kind, jacks.
chiseler shows [ Qd, Qs, Td, Ks ] a straight, ten to ace.
AwwwNutz wins $79.45 from side pot #2 with two pairs, tens and fours.
chiseler wins $2272.8 from side pot #1 with a straight, ten to ace.
chiseler wins $1201 from the main pot with a straight, ten to ace.
What a mess. Played like a holdem hand, this hand should have been given up on the turn. Its a hell of a parlay for Aww to be winning on the turn now and still survive a river. And the river bet is a foolish bluff. Chiseler has been very loose and may call with just aces up for value. And he may be betting into a dry pot anyway.
God bless Party. If only I could take advantage :)
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
YTD: +$32106.74
Well, the madness has descended. On the outside these guys look like PLO players, or at least they fill up the seats on the screen. Inside, however, they are demonic creatures beyond sane comprehension. They are Party Poker players.
Party has gone PLO mad, with the limit increase causing a frenzy. Last week, there was barely a game of 5-10 PLO on Stars a day. Now there are 4-6 around the clock. The lower limits are similarly pumping.
I wish I could report I am doing well, but I'm not. Variance is going to be huge. A pair with a bad flush draw is enough to call off your money through to the river, may all that see it bless it. Some are no doubt winning big. Some are doing their bollocks. One guy, probably the best PLO8b player on the net, lost the best part of 20k in 48 hours. These guys were not laying down hands :(
Personally I'm treading water, but I'm looking forward to much, much more.
YOG-SOTHOTH!
Well, the madness has descended. On the outside these guys look like PLO players, or at least they fill up the seats on the screen. Inside, however, they are demonic creatures beyond sane comprehension. They are Party Poker players.
Party has gone PLO mad, with the limit increase causing a frenzy. Last week, there was barely a game of 5-10 PLO on Stars a day. Now there are 4-6 around the clock. The lower limits are similarly pumping.
I wish I could report I am doing well, but I'm not. Variance is going to be huge. A pair with a bad flush draw is enough to call off your money through to the river, may all that see it bless it. Some are no doubt winning big. Some are doing their bollocks. One guy, probably the best PLO8b player on the net, lost the best part of 20k in 48 hours. These guys were not laying down hands :(
Personally I'm treading water, but I'm looking forward to much, much more.
YOG-SOTHOTH!
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Youth is Wasted on the Young
YTD: +$27289.09
One of the perennial posters on the UK scene is David Young. My views on him are fairly well-known, in fact I posted something to this effect on Andy Ward's blog the other day. In brief I like his integrity, but wonder what the poker point is. In general, poker does not seem to be DY's subject, but he did come up with something once that has lodged in my mind ever since.
The Cash Game Tournament.
The idea is simple. You sit in a cash game, ideally one a bit below money-wise than you are used to. The object of the tournament is to play up your money until you can buy into the next biggest game. And then the next. Ad infinitum. It can be quite fun, although it smells too much of gambling to be my taste. Anyway, the new 10-20 game on Stars was looming over me and I thought I would try and spin 200 in the 1-2 to get a buyin. Of course I lasted about half an hour :-(
The hand that basically finished me off really showed how badly newbies to the game can cause themselves mischief trying out PLO. Although he beat me in this particular instance :-( And remember this was a 1-2 blind game so it was supposed to be of a reasonable standard.
I raised quite loosely on the button with a suited ace - I had been showing some speed. The SB reraised me..quite likely aces, and I called. The flop came Q J T mixed suits. He checked and so did I. The turn came a 6, giving me a nut flush draw. He checked and I bet about 3/4 of the pot, roughly half his remaining stack. He called. The turn gave us an interesting K. He checked again, and not having even a pair to show I set him allin. He was maybe getting 3-4 to 1 on this call. He just had Aces! And no draw to even call the turn. He had decided that I was bluffing, without thinking through the fact that I could be bluffing with better than one pair. Also, I think he thought that the AA in his hand made it more likely that I was bluffing, when in actual fact it was the opposite. This isn't holdem. 99% of the time I must have some part of this board.
I guess the 10-20 game is a little way off still.
One of the perennial posters on the UK scene is David Young. My views on him are fairly well-known, in fact I posted something to this effect on Andy Ward's blog the other day. In brief I like his integrity, but wonder what the poker point is. In general, poker does not seem to be DY's subject, but he did come up with something once that has lodged in my mind ever since.
The Cash Game Tournament.
The idea is simple. You sit in a cash game, ideally one a bit below money-wise than you are used to. The object of the tournament is to play up your money until you can buy into the next biggest game. And then the next. Ad infinitum. It can be quite fun, although it smells too much of gambling to be my taste. Anyway, the new 10-20 game on Stars was looming over me and I thought I would try and spin 200 in the 1-2 to get a buyin. Of course I lasted about half an hour :-(
The hand that basically finished me off really showed how badly newbies to the game can cause themselves mischief trying out PLO. Although he beat me in this particular instance :-( And remember this was a 1-2 blind game so it was supposed to be of a reasonable standard.
I raised quite loosely on the button with a suited ace - I had been showing some speed. The SB reraised me..quite likely aces, and I called. The flop came Q J T mixed suits. He checked and so did I. The turn came a 6, giving me a nut flush draw. He checked and I bet about 3/4 of the pot, roughly half his remaining stack. He called. The turn gave us an interesting K. He checked again, and not having even a pair to show I set him allin. He was maybe getting 3-4 to 1 on this call. He just had Aces! And no draw to even call the turn. He had decided that I was bluffing, without thinking through the fact that I could be bluffing with better than one pair. Also, I think he thought that the AA in his hand made it more likely that I was bluffing, when in actual fact it was the opposite. This isn't holdem. 99% of the time I must have some part of this board.
I guess the 10-20 game is a little way off still.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Viva Las Vegas!
YTD: +$28368.85
Well finally one of those tournament things paid off. Last Saturday night, I played a Winner-Takes-All satellite to the $1500 PLO event at the WSOP and managed to stumble my way to victory :-) Hopefully I will be another fat bloke talking about how I turned one hundred bucks into hundreds of thousands on ESPN...hold it, maybe I need to lose weight!
I almost didn't play the event itself as I was feeling quite under the weather with a man-cold that I haven't been able to throw off. But because it had been organised by one of the immortals on the 2+2 plo forum, and occasionally here, Acesover8s, I gave it a spin.
To be honest, I didn't pay a whole heap of attention to the early stages as I was having some big swings on PLO8b on Stars. There was a lot of play though, and after taking an early lead I then bluffed off a few too many chips and had to get into waiting mode.
Even this didn't really pay off, and with 13-14 players left I had less than 2% of the chips in play. In these kind of stages the way to play is very simple - make sure you have enough to make a raise...and make sure you raise and don't call off your chips so at least you have two ways to win. I trawled through this mud for quite some time, building back up, but never enough where my stack had any real kind of play to it beside allin. Eventually this tight aggressive approach got me to the final table, but only with 7 big blinds. So again my approach was dictated for me...wait for hands, make cheap moves where possible and be aggressive if I played at all. The game was being played to a very very loose aggro style, and it simply didnt make sense trying to play flops with such a short stack. I ended up passing a lot of hands that I would play in a cash game and it seemed I was the only one really making that kind of adjustment. This doesn't mean I was adverse to making a steal or two with something like Kh,2d,Js,Qs for example...but these were position moves only.
My first big break was when I raised with Ad,Jd,Ac,4d and got a caller who also called for a reasonable allin bet on the flop of 10d,Qh,5d. The fact I was called by Ah,7c,5h,7h showed just how loose the table was playing. Kind of a hybrid PLO/NLHE combo :) This gave me room to breathe, but I was still playing a tight game, for example I passed a medium suited pair to a raise in my big blind. All the confrontations would be of my choosing, if I could help it.
I ticked along in this fashion for quite a while. One of the things I was lucky with was that when I did get my raises called, I tended to hit something on the flop, even if it was only a good draw. This meant it was much easier to follow through and bet the flop. Then I made my first real bad mistake. I called a very loose raiser from the big blind with Ah,8s,9d,4c and the flop only brought me Jc,7s,8c. Now I could actually be in front here, and I do have a half-assed draw, but I felt I needed more in this spot, especially and perhaps paradoxically BECAUSE he was a loose raiser. I hung tight for a while until I got a chance to make a nice move to make up for my previous poor one:
With only $3100 in my stack I called 1800 more from the small blind from the same loose raiser with 8d,7c,Jc,7d. Yes, CALLED. You guessed it, I was going to bet regardless of what came on the flop, which was an ok Kd,4d,2c...my foe passed.
Only a few hands later i found myself headsup facing over a 5 to 1 chip disadvantage. I would have to get lucky. What was in my favor was that my opponent was playing very, very fast. Now some people prefer trying to finish off a tourney in this way, a quick murder. But I don't like it. Especially when the antes are large enough and my stack still of a size that if I double up a few times, I'm the chip favourite. There was no point in limping as he would raise...so I was happy to let him limp and if I was in, I was firing. I lost some ground, then doubled up with kings. Immediately I bet out the very next hand with bottom two pair on the flop, and passed to a raise. Again, I wasn't going to try and get lucky on a call.
I was then lucky for 9c,As,Kd,2d to stand up against Jc,Kh,10d,Qh allin preflop. The power really shifted when I reraised with 10h,4s,10s,2c against 10c,3d,Ad,7d and won on the flop when nothing came. To be honest I don't like either of our plays in this hand...my tens action is too extreme and he should really pass to the reraise.
Now I was chip leader the difference in approaches was very apparent. I didn't give him much action at all, I was looking to grind him out, and when he raised I only called with Qh,Ad,3h,Ks. The flop came a very nice 10c,6s,Js and I check raised him allin with his 7s,4d,7c,Jc and I hit my str8 on the river! My opponent played a great game, considering his inexperience but I feel he tried to close me down too quickly instead of just anteing me out.
So, adorned in Absolutepoker.com livery, to Vegas I shall go!
Well finally one of those tournament things paid off. Last Saturday night, I played a Winner-Takes-All satellite to the $1500 PLO event at the WSOP and managed to stumble my way to victory :-) Hopefully I will be another fat bloke talking about how I turned one hundred bucks into hundreds of thousands on ESPN...hold it, maybe I need to lose weight!
I almost didn't play the event itself as I was feeling quite under the weather with a man-cold that I haven't been able to throw off. But because it had been organised by one of the immortals on the 2+2 plo forum, and occasionally here, Acesover8s, I gave it a spin.
To be honest, I didn't pay a whole heap of attention to the early stages as I was having some big swings on PLO8b on Stars. There was a lot of play though, and after taking an early lead I then bluffed off a few too many chips and had to get into waiting mode.
Even this didn't really pay off, and with 13-14 players left I had less than 2% of the chips in play. In these kind of stages the way to play is very simple - make sure you have enough to make a raise...and make sure you raise and don't call off your chips so at least you have two ways to win. I trawled through this mud for quite some time, building back up, but never enough where my stack had any real kind of play to it beside allin. Eventually this tight aggressive approach got me to the final table, but only with 7 big blinds. So again my approach was dictated for me...wait for hands, make cheap moves where possible and be aggressive if I played at all. The game was being played to a very very loose aggro style, and it simply didnt make sense trying to play flops with such a short stack. I ended up passing a lot of hands that I would play in a cash game and it seemed I was the only one really making that kind of adjustment. This doesn't mean I was adverse to making a steal or two with something like Kh,2d,Js,Qs for example...but these were position moves only.
My first big break was when I raised with Ad,Jd,Ac,4d and got a caller who also called for a reasonable allin bet on the flop of 10d,Qh,5d. The fact I was called by Ah,7c,5h,7h showed just how loose the table was playing. Kind of a hybrid PLO/NLHE combo :) This gave me room to breathe, but I was still playing a tight game, for example I passed a medium suited pair to a raise in my big blind. All the confrontations would be of my choosing, if I could help it.
I ticked along in this fashion for quite a while. One of the things I was lucky with was that when I did get my raises called, I tended to hit something on the flop, even if it was only a good draw. This meant it was much easier to follow through and bet the flop. Then I made my first real bad mistake. I called a very loose raiser from the big blind with Ah,8s,9d,4c and the flop only brought me Jc,7s,8c. Now I could actually be in front here, and I do have a half-assed draw, but I felt I needed more in this spot, especially and perhaps paradoxically BECAUSE he was a loose raiser. I hung tight for a while until I got a chance to make a nice move to make up for my previous poor one:
With only $3100 in my stack I called 1800 more from the small blind from the same loose raiser with 8d,7c,Jc,7d. Yes, CALLED. You guessed it, I was going to bet regardless of what came on the flop, which was an ok Kd,4d,2c...my foe passed.
Only a few hands later i found myself headsup facing over a 5 to 1 chip disadvantage. I would have to get lucky. What was in my favor was that my opponent was playing very, very fast. Now some people prefer trying to finish off a tourney in this way, a quick murder. But I don't like it. Especially when the antes are large enough and my stack still of a size that if I double up a few times, I'm the chip favourite. There was no point in limping as he would raise...so I was happy to let him limp and if I was in, I was firing. I lost some ground, then doubled up with kings. Immediately I bet out the very next hand with bottom two pair on the flop, and passed to a raise. Again, I wasn't going to try and get lucky on a call.
I was then lucky for 9c,As,Kd,2d to stand up against Jc,Kh,10d,Qh allin preflop. The power really shifted when I reraised with 10h,4s,10s,2c against 10c,3d,Ad,7d and won on the flop when nothing came. To be honest I don't like either of our plays in this hand...my tens action is too extreme and he should really pass to the reraise.
Now I was chip leader the difference in approaches was very apparent. I didn't give him much action at all, I was looking to grind him out, and when he raised I only called with Qh,Ad,3h,Ks. The flop came a very nice 10c,6s,Js and I check raised him allin with his 7s,4d,7c,Jc and I hit my str8 on the river! My opponent played a great game, considering his inexperience but I feel he tried to close me down too quickly instead of just anteing me out.
So, adorned in Absolutepoker.com livery, to Vegas I shall go!
Friday, February 18, 2005
Holdem Hating...Interlude
YTD: +$22858.90
I did give another Holdem tourney a spin..the 10+1 rebuy on Stars. It was OK. I played more ABC poker and things worked out well-ish. 73rd out of 557. But again it was the same old same old. I got bored. These things just take too damn long. And then I start looking at the prize list and realise that unless I come at least 3rd or 4th it's barely worth winning. So then exasperation adds to the boredom.
However I do recognise that this is where a lot of the money is today online so I probably do have to persevere. Maybe I should play the Stars every week and look at the daily large comps on Party. Undecided.
Still prefer cash games tho :-)
I did give another Holdem tourney a spin..the 10+1 rebuy on Stars. It was OK. I played more ABC poker and things worked out well-ish. 73rd out of 557. But again it was the same old same old. I got bored. These things just take too damn long. And then I start looking at the prize list and realise that unless I come at least 3rd or 4th it's barely worth winning. So then exasperation adds to the boredom.
However I do recognise that this is where a lot of the money is today online so I probably do have to persevere. Maybe I should play the Stars every week and look at the daily large comps on Party. Undecided.
Still prefer cash games tho :-)
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Flushed with Success
YTD: +$22281.80
One of the things that clearly differentiates No Limit Hold'em players coming to Pot Limit Omaha is how they play the nut flush draw, especially if they are coming from No Limit Hold'em tournament-style.
Basically, if you find yourself all-in playing the nut flush draw in No Limit, you are never in much jeopardy. In fact many players will move all-in themselves, trying to win the pot then and there. The reason that you are nearly always in reasonably fine shape playing this way is that in Hold'em it is comparatively rare for your opponent to have the nuts, such as a hidden set. More than likely you are facing just one pair, and you are near enough to even money not to care, and maybe a small favourite if you have two overcards to the flop. So in the majority of situations, it's hard to make a sizeable error in playing the nut flush draw in big bet Hold'em In many cases the cards are playing you, not you playing the cards, and you are not having to make any brain-aching decisions.
The situation is very different in Pot Limit Omaha.
Because the average hand in Omaha is much stronger, if you over commit to the nut flush draw you are very likely to find yourself against a made hand. This is especially a problem heads up, as you may find yourself getting basically even money on a hand which may be as bad as a 2 to 1 dog, in the case of a hidden set. Time and time again, especially on the Net where NL players are having "a shot" at a PLO game, I see them heave in 100 or so blinds heads up in an un raised pot. Basically they are turning a marginal situation into one that has a very poor long term expected value.
As an example, in a PLO game online a tight player bet into a field of 3-4 players with two of a suit, but no other draw available on the flop. We both have comparatively monster stacks. I passed the nut flush draw! The reasoning was that if I raised, he would either pass, and I would have won a small pot, or he would have re raised, in which case I would be finding myself committed to a bigger pot in which I was a reasonable underdog. If I just called and hit I would not get paid anyway. This is a rare situation but perfectly sensible if you know your foe.
Conversely, in a multi-way pot, if my raise will set me all-in on the flop I am often happy to play the aggressor even though I may expect to get called and I would also expect to have some of my outs in other people's hands. This is because I am still drawing to the nuts, but I will be getting much better money odds and this may actually turn it into a long term positive expectation situation, especially if I have even as little as a back door out extra.
Next time you find yourself with the nut flush draw and little else, think about factors such as position, how big the pot is, whether your raise can actually makes someone pass, how deep your and your opponents stacks are, and how you will play the turn. You can actually decide how to play the cards; they don't have to play you!
One of the things that clearly differentiates No Limit Hold'em players coming to Pot Limit Omaha is how they play the nut flush draw, especially if they are coming from No Limit Hold'em tournament-style.
Basically, if you find yourself all-in playing the nut flush draw in No Limit, you are never in much jeopardy. In fact many players will move all-in themselves, trying to win the pot then and there. The reason that you are nearly always in reasonably fine shape playing this way is that in Hold'em it is comparatively rare for your opponent to have the nuts, such as a hidden set. More than likely you are facing just one pair, and you are near enough to even money not to care, and maybe a small favourite if you have two overcards to the flop. So in the majority of situations, it's hard to make a sizeable error in playing the nut flush draw in big bet Hold'em In many cases the cards are playing you, not you playing the cards, and you are not having to make any brain-aching decisions.
The situation is very different in Pot Limit Omaha.
Because the average hand in Omaha is much stronger, if you over commit to the nut flush draw you are very likely to find yourself against a made hand. This is especially a problem heads up, as you may find yourself getting basically even money on a hand which may be as bad as a 2 to 1 dog, in the case of a hidden set. Time and time again, especially on the Net where NL players are having "a shot" at a PLO game, I see them heave in 100 or so blinds heads up in an un raised pot. Basically they are turning a marginal situation into one that has a very poor long term expected value.
As an example, in a PLO game online a tight player bet into a field of 3-4 players with two of a suit, but no other draw available on the flop. We both have comparatively monster stacks. I passed the nut flush draw! The reasoning was that if I raised, he would either pass, and I would have won a small pot, or he would have re raised, in which case I would be finding myself committed to a bigger pot in which I was a reasonable underdog. If I just called and hit I would not get paid anyway. This is a rare situation but perfectly sensible if you know your foe.
Conversely, in a multi-way pot, if my raise will set me all-in on the flop I am often happy to play the aggressor even though I may expect to get called and I would also expect to have some of my outs in other people's hands. This is because I am still drawing to the nuts, but I will be getting much better money odds and this may actually turn it into a long term positive expectation situation, especially if I have even as little as a back door out extra.
Next time you find yourself with the nut flush draw and little else, think about factors such as position, how big the pot is, whether your raise can actually makes someone pass, how deep your and your opponents stacks are, and how you will play the turn. You can actually decide how to play the cards; they don't have to play you!
Monday, February 14, 2005
Holdem Hater
YTD: +$23750.50
I hate Texas Holdem.
I must admit to a slight fondness for the limit version of the game, but the mindsets between it and PLO are so vast and varied that I find it hard to switch from one to the other, as a disappointing Party session taught me last month. I passed to a classic underpair value bet/bluff just because there was 4 to a straight and a caller - even though I had drove all the action with my top pair, good kicker - even though I was getting laid more than 10 to 1!
But back to the subject at hand, hating holdem, of the NL and tourney variety.
Of course it hasn't always been this way. Like most Brits, I grew up playing tournament holdem, small buyins and pot limit. And I was good at it. However now the world has tilted on its axis and the world of NL tourney play is vastly different from the one I cut my teeth on. Back in the day, and it seems now so very long ago, to be a winning player you simply had to be intelligently aggressive. Most dead money, as it is labelled, was tight passive and could only really cause you harm if it got hit by the deck. Of course now the so-called dead money is ticking away like a time bomb. Sure they don't play "properly"; they grotesquely overplay all their hands on almost every street; having to call or bet on the river is unknown to them - they are already allin. Maybe playing this way is deadly for their bankrolls, but they don't care, they're just having fun doing what their "heroes" do on ESPN. But you can be sure that it can be deadly to you, if you don't make the right adjustments to your game or you are just plain unlucky.
It probably doesn't help my mood that my timing and luck is way out of kilter. I make a move in an unraised pot with 22 and then suddenly, bink, bink, bink, out pops a whole raft of slowplayed pocket pairs. I've got someone drawing to 4 outs for a big pot, and not only does he hit it, another runner comes to ensure someone else beats me too. Depressing.
Some examples of mild madness that you could see every day now on the web. We are playing the 215 tourney on Stars. There are three limpers to the button, with the blinds at 50, so 225 in the pot. The button goes allin for over 2000. Yum. Playing a winner-take-all 1-tale satellite, a guy limps for 50 UTG and I raise with 99 in the CO to 150. Everyone folds to him and he goes allin for 900+ more. With KJo.
These and many, many more are just standard moves in the NL world now. The game I used to enjoy, where you could outwit each other through the streets has fairly much gone, at least online. I'm sure there are sensible and strategic adjustments you can make. Dan N seems to have made them, along with some others. But I don't seem to have the heart or the will to make them, which is foolish considering how much money is flying around in these things.
I hate Texas Holdem.
I must admit to a slight fondness for the limit version of the game, but the mindsets between it and PLO are so vast and varied that I find it hard to switch from one to the other, as a disappointing Party session taught me last month. I passed to a classic underpair value bet/bluff just because there was 4 to a straight and a caller - even though I had drove all the action with my top pair, good kicker - even though I was getting laid more than 10 to 1!
But back to the subject at hand, hating holdem, of the NL and tourney variety.
Of course it hasn't always been this way. Like most Brits, I grew up playing tournament holdem, small buyins and pot limit. And I was good at it. However now the world has tilted on its axis and the world of NL tourney play is vastly different from the one I cut my teeth on. Back in the day, and it seems now so very long ago, to be a winning player you simply had to be intelligently aggressive. Most dead money, as it is labelled, was tight passive and could only really cause you harm if it got hit by the deck. Of course now the so-called dead money is ticking away like a time bomb. Sure they don't play "properly"; they grotesquely overplay all their hands on almost every street; having to call or bet on the river is unknown to them - they are already allin. Maybe playing this way is deadly for their bankrolls, but they don't care, they're just having fun doing what their "heroes" do on ESPN. But you can be sure that it can be deadly to you, if you don't make the right adjustments to your game or you are just plain unlucky.
It probably doesn't help my mood that my timing and luck is way out of kilter. I make a move in an unraised pot with 22 and then suddenly, bink, bink, bink, out pops a whole raft of slowplayed pocket pairs. I've got someone drawing to 4 outs for a big pot, and not only does he hit it, another runner comes to ensure someone else beats me too. Depressing.
Some examples of mild madness that you could see every day now on the web. We are playing the 215 tourney on Stars. There are three limpers to the button, with the blinds at 50, so 225 in the pot. The button goes allin for over 2000. Yum. Playing a winner-take-all 1-tale satellite, a guy limps for 50 UTG and I raise with 99 in the CO to 150. Everyone folds to him and he goes allin for 900+ more. With KJo.
These and many, many more are just standard moves in the NL world now. The game I used to enjoy, where you could outwit each other through the streets has fairly much gone, at least online. I'm sure there are sensible and strategic adjustments you can make. Dan N seems to have made them, along with some others. But I don't seem to have the heart or the will to make them, which is foolish considering how much money is flying around in these things.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Rushin' Roulette
YTD: +$25965.30
There was some interest in my posting hands from my rush, which I'm *almost* going to resist. The problem is that when you are hitting this well, most of the hands are fairly uninteresting. It’s mostly a question of having hold of someone by the bollocks and gently squeezing. Or maybe roughly. This does not make great reading. So instead, I'm gonna post those hands that I won, but played really, really bad :-) But from now on, interesting hands only, whichever way the rush is going!
The first hand is so bad I can’t even comment on it – it speaks for itself:
PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $4 BB (9 handed)
saw flop|saw showdown
CO ($432.50)
Button ($266.90)
SB ($456.40)
BB ($109)
UTG ($837.75)
UTG+1 ($728.20)
MP1 ($684.95)
MP2 ($285)
Hero ($743.20)
Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Js, 7h, Qs, Td.
UTG calls $4, UTG+1 raises to $8, 2 folds, Hero calls $8, 1 fold, Button calls $8, SB calls $6, BB raises to $52, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $44, Hero calls $44, Button folds, SB calls $44.
Flop: ($220) 3s, Jd, Kc (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets $57 (All-In), UTG+1 raises to $388, Hero calls $388, SB folds.
Turn: ($1053) 8s (3 players, 1 all-in)
UTG+1 bets $288.2 (All-In), Hero calls $288.20.
River: ($1629.40) 9d (3 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: $1629.40
Main Pot: $391, between BB, UTG+1 and Hero. > Pot won by Hero ($391).
Pot 2: $1238.40, between UTG+1 and Hero. > Pot won by Hero ($1238.40).
BB has Ad 5d Kh Ah (one pair, aces).
UTG+1 has 7s Kd Ks 7c (three of a kind, kings).
Hero has Js 7h Qs Td (straight, king high).
Outcome: Hero wins $1629.40.
I have no excuses for this hand. I played every street badly. I deserved to lose. I must have been a touch on tilt. What is interesting is that the turn call looked good, but in actual fact made me even deader. NH. Not.
This one is bad, but there is some thought at least:
PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $4 BB (8 handed)
saw flop|saw showdown
MP1 ($353.90)
MP2 ($1851.45)
CO ($390)
Hero ($1299.65)
SB ($308.40)
BB ($524.40)
UTG ($233.60)
UTG+1 ($187)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 9s, 5c, 8s, 6h.
2 folds, MP1 calls $4, 2 folds, Hero raises to $12, 1 fold, BB raises to $42, MP1 raises to $140, Hero calls $128, BB calls $98.
OK, I’m loose as a goose here, but it now looks like they both have high pairs, maybe both even with AA. In that scenario my hand is quite good.
Flop: ($422) Th, 2d, 6d (3 players)
BB bets $384.4 (All-In), MP1 calls $213.90 (All-In), Hero calls $384.40.
This is far from a dream flop. But if my read is right, then even if one has the nut flush draw, this is an ok call. Unbelievable but true.
Turn: ($1404.70) Jc (3 players, 2 all-in)
River: ($1404.70) 6c (3 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: $1404.70
Main Pot: $1063.70, between MP1, Hero and BB. > Pot won by Hero ($1063.70).
Pot 2: $341, between Hero and BB. > Pot won by Hero ($341).
MP1 has 5h As Ad 8d (two pair, aces and sixes)
BB has Td 9d 8h 7s (two pair, tens and sixes).
Hero has 9s 5c 8s 6h (trips, sixes)
Outcome: Hero wins $1404.70.
Arrrrrggggghhhh. My read was very, very bad. In fact I was almost drawing dead. However, compared to the first hand this was World Class Play :-)
So. An amusing slant on a rush? Not to worry, I have played *some* hands well too.
There was some interest in my posting hands from my rush, which I'm *almost* going to resist. The problem is that when you are hitting this well, most of the hands are fairly uninteresting. It’s mostly a question of having hold of someone by the bollocks and gently squeezing. Or maybe roughly. This does not make great reading. So instead, I'm gonna post those hands that I won, but played really, really bad :-) But from now on, interesting hands only, whichever way the rush is going!
The first hand is so bad I can’t even comment on it – it speaks for itself:
PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $4 BB (9 handed)
saw flop|saw showdown
CO ($432.50)
Button ($266.90)
SB ($456.40)
BB ($109)
UTG ($837.75)
UTG+1 ($728.20)
MP1 ($684.95)
MP2 ($285)
Hero ($743.20)
Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Js, 7h, Qs, Td.
UTG calls $4, UTG+1 raises to $8, 2 folds, Hero calls $8, 1 fold, Button calls $8, SB calls $6, BB raises to $52, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $44, Hero calls $44, Button folds, SB calls $44.
Flop: ($220) 3s, Jd, Kc (4 players)
SB checks, BB bets $57 (All-In), UTG+1 raises to $388, Hero calls $388, SB folds.
Turn: ($1053) 8s (3 players, 1 all-in)
UTG+1 bets $288.2 (All-In), Hero calls $288.20.
River: ($1629.40) 9d (3 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: $1629.40
Main Pot: $391, between BB, UTG+1 and Hero. > Pot won by Hero ($391).
Pot 2: $1238.40, between UTG+1 and Hero. > Pot won by Hero ($1238.40).
BB has Ad 5d Kh Ah (one pair, aces).
UTG+1 has 7s Kd Ks 7c (three of a kind, kings).
Hero has Js 7h Qs Td (straight, king high).
Outcome: Hero wins $1629.40.
I have no excuses for this hand. I played every street badly. I deserved to lose. I must have been a touch on tilt. What is interesting is that the turn call looked good, but in actual fact made me even deader. NH. Not.
This one is bad, but there is some thought at least:
PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha High, $4 BB (8 handed)
saw flop|saw showdown
MP1 ($353.90)
MP2 ($1851.45)
CO ($390)
Hero ($1299.65)
SB ($308.40)
BB ($524.40)
UTG ($233.60)
UTG+1 ($187)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 9s, 5c, 8s, 6h.
2 folds, MP1 calls $4, 2 folds, Hero raises to $12, 1 fold, BB raises to $42, MP1 raises to $140, Hero calls $128, BB calls $98.
OK, I’m loose as a goose here, but it now looks like they both have high pairs, maybe both even with AA. In that scenario my hand is quite good.
Flop: ($422) Th, 2d, 6d (3 players)
BB bets $384.4 (All-In), MP1 calls $213.90 (All-In), Hero calls $384.40.
This is far from a dream flop. But if my read is right, then even if one has the nut flush draw, this is an ok call. Unbelievable but true.
Turn: ($1404.70) Jc (3 players, 2 all-in)
River: ($1404.70) 6c (3 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: $1404.70
Main Pot: $1063.70, between MP1, Hero and BB. > Pot won by Hero ($1063.70).
Pot 2: $341, between Hero and BB. > Pot won by Hero ($341).
MP1 has 5h As Ad 8d (two pair, aces and sixes)
BB has Td 9d 8h 7s (two pair, tens and sixes).
Hero has 9s 5c 8s 6h (trips, sixes)
Outcome: Hero wins $1404.70.
Arrrrrggggghhhh. My read was very, very bad. In fact I was almost drawing dead. However, compared to the first hand this was World Class Play :-)
So. An amusing slant on a rush? Not to worry, I have played *some* hands well too.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Not so Super System
YTD: +$19781.95
A little while back a poster asked me for my views on Super System 2 (SS2). Finally, the slow boat from China delivered this long-awaited tome from the Doylesroom.com site after only a wait of 1 1/2 months from shipping. What's my initial view?
Crap.
I haven't read it all yet, and I sincerely doubt I will do. Even for a poker book the writing is mostly poor. I guess the problem for me is that I expected it to be of a similar quality to SS1, which although was often about antiquated games, was always full of top-notch advice. In SS2 you get a lot of filler...a LOT OF FILLER. Do you want to know the history of NLHE? Or the WPT? Or a synopsis of Mike Caro's n books? Well here it is. But wait, isn't this supposed to be a book for *experts*?
I've only read one full section, the PLO. I can't imagine that anything in it you wouldn't have already figured out for yourself if you had played a bit. Certainly nothing as useful as the Ciaffone and Ruben books. Not one thing that was an eye opener. I guess there was the prohibition on early raising that I liked, but I understand that I may be in the minority there and for me its more a style thing - lots of players seem to raise early and do okay. There was also some bad advice and IMHO at least one piece of fatal advice, so bad I can't mention it just in case it is widely taken up and it is directly responsible for my becoming a millionaire :-)
But it does make a very effective doorstop.
A little while back a poster asked me for my views on Super System 2 (SS2). Finally, the slow boat from China delivered this long-awaited tome from the Doylesroom.com site after only a wait of 1 1/2 months from shipping. What's my initial view?
Crap.
I haven't read it all yet, and I sincerely doubt I will do. Even for a poker book the writing is mostly poor. I guess the problem for me is that I expected it to be of a similar quality to SS1, which although was often about antiquated games, was always full of top-notch advice. In SS2 you get a lot of filler...a LOT OF FILLER. Do you want to know the history of NLHE? Or the WPT? Or a synopsis of Mike Caro's n books? Well here it is. But wait, isn't this supposed to be a book for *experts*?
I've only read one full section, the PLO. I can't imagine that anything in it you wouldn't have already figured out for yourself if you had played a bit. Certainly nothing as useful as the Ciaffone and Ruben books. Not one thing that was an eye opener. I guess there was the prohibition on early raising that I liked, but I understand that I may be in the minority there and for me its more a style thing - lots of players seem to raise early and do okay. There was also some bad advice and IMHO at least one piece of fatal advice, so bad I can't mention it just in case it is widely taken up and it is directly responsible for my becoming a millionaire :-)
But it does make a very effective doorstop.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
The Mouth of Madness
YTD: +$11083.55
Apologies to my Constant Readers for the long hiatus...too much play and too much other stuff going on. I thought this hand was a very interesting one as I am either a complete fish or I played it very well. Needless to say my Foe went beserk after this and went into a long diatribe about how useless I am. Not a good tactic with me as (a) I have the money (b) I am funnier at the needle stuff than most (c) I have the money.
Omaha Pot Limit ($2/$4) - 2005/01/24 -
19:09:00 (ET)
Table 'Abnoba' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: haloofflies ($55.15 in chips)
Seat 3: fixer410 ($494.45 in chips)
Seat 4: TheDummy ($461 in chips)
Seat 7: Foe ($513.15 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero ($362 in chips)
Seat 9: proffen ($1793.95 in chips)
fixer410: posts small blind $2
TheDummy: posts big blind $4
Svenning: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [5s 7c 4d 8d]
Foe: calls $4
Hero: raises $8 to $12
I certainly don't always raise with this kind of stuff in early position. However I felt my foe was fairly exploitable and I would rather have him "to myself" if that was the case
mamakitty has returned
proffen: folds
haloofflies: folds
fixer410: folds
TheDummy: folds
Foe: calls $8
*** FLOP *** [2d Ad 9s]
Foe: checks
Hero: bets $24
A standard "Yes I really do have them bet"
Foe: raises $76.50 to $100.50
This was a strange one. Why check raise supposed trips with a flush draw? He didn't seem that kind of player at all. And of course my own flush draw makes it less likely he has one. The clearest explanation is that he has trips or two pair himself and that he doesn't believe me. My outs, plus the surprise factor of the middle pin just about make this a call for the turn.
Hero: calls $76.50
*** TURN *** [2d Ad 9s] [Th]
Foe: bets $228
Assuming I'm right on his hand, this card has just shot my outs through the roof. I would have passed a blank on the turn, but if all my outs are good, this is actually a trivial call.
Hero: calls $228
*** RIVER *** [2d Ad 9s Th] [5d]
Foe: bets $25
Hero: calls $21.50 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Foe: shows [9c 9h Ah 5c] (three of a kind, Nines)
Hero: shows [5s 7c 4d 8d] (a flush, Ace high)
Hero collected $727 from pot
Insanity or good play?
Apologies to my Constant Readers for the long hiatus...too much play and too much other stuff going on. I thought this hand was a very interesting one as I am either a complete fish or I played it very well. Needless to say my Foe went beserk after this and went into a long diatribe about how useless I am. Not a good tactic with me as (a) I have the money (b) I am funnier at the needle stuff than most (c) I have the money.
Omaha Pot Limit ($2/$4) - 2005/01/24 -
19:09:00 (ET)
Table 'Abnoba' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: haloofflies ($55.15 in chips)
Seat 3: fixer410 ($494.45 in chips)
Seat 4: TheDummy ($461 in chips)
Seat 7: Foe ($513.15 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero ($362 in chips)
Seat 9: proffen ($1793.95 in chips)
fixer410: posts small blind $2
TheDummy: posts big blind $4
Svenning: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [5s 7c 4d 8d]
Foe: calls $4
Hero: raises $8 to $12
I certainly don't always raise with this kind of stuff in early position. However I felt my foe was fairly exploitable and I would rather have him "to myself" if that was the case
mamakitty has returned
proffen: folds
haloofflies: folds
fixer410: folds
TheDummy: folds
Foe: calls $8
*** FLOP *** [2d Ad 9s]
Foe: checks
Hero: bets $24
A standard "Yes I really do have them bet"
Foe: raises $76.50 to $100.50
This was a strange one. Why check raise supposed trips with a flush draw? He didn't seem that kind of player at all. And of course my own flush draw makes it less likely he has one. The clearest explanation is that he has trips or two pair himself and that he doesn't believe me. My outs, plus the surprise factor of the middle pin just about make this a call for the turn.
Hero: calls $76.50
*** TURN *** [2d Ad 9s] [Th]
Foe: bets $228
Assuming I'm right on his hand, this card has just shot my outs through the roof. I would have passed a blank on the turn, but if all my outs are good, this is actually a trivial call.
Hero: calls $228
*** RIVER *** [2d Ad 9s Th] [5d]
Foe: bets $25
Hero: calls $21.50 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Foe: shows [9c 9h Ah 5c] (three of a kind, Nines)
Hero: shows [5s 7c 4d 8d] (a flush, Ace high)
Hero collected $727 from pot
Insanity or good play?
Thursday, January 27, 2005
I Pity the Fool
YTD: +$6684.38
Andy Ward, in his usual perceptive style, is having a dig at people who are sponsored in his recent blog entry, although his allusion might be a bit obscure for non-Brits. I agree with his sentiments but very much disagree with his outcomes - if you can get a sponsorship deal then as the curious gambling phrase goes, "fill your boots!" Because these times cannot last.
To explain my thinking, you will have to traverse back with me to the times of the Great Dot-com Explosion. These too were times of great wealth and little sense. I was fortunate, or maybe not, to be involved in a Dot-Bomb at the time. Many times I would meet with very intelligent people with great ideas, wonderful original ideas, but when asked "How do you make money?" they would come over all queasy and blank-eyed (incidentally my favorite answer was "monetize eyeballs"...that brings back the memories.) Internet poker and the sponsorship it brings is very reminiscent of this situation, well without the very intelligent people and ideas bit.
What in very simple terms do the sponsors get from their players? What has The Hendon Mob brought Prima that has justified its tremendous outlay? I don't know what their deal is, who pays RFB and other exes; nor do I know THM except by reputation and rumour. But its fairly clear that if THM were to have even a reasonably bad year, it would be very hard to justify that cost in terms of promotion and gained revenue from new players. In fact I think of myself as being very internet savvy, and to be frank I don't see what they are doing to bring revenue to Prima at all. Their site is mostly abandoned by them; they don't seem to be doing much promotion in terms of playing online; their results in events have mostly been in ones where there has been no logos anyway. The truth is that they are being sponsored because that is what Internet Poker Sites Do, not because of any real, tangible marketing $ to revenue benefit. And if the value of THM is questionable, what about Jac Arama?
What do you think would have happened to Ram and Barney in the recent Atlantic City events, as depicted in their diary, if poker sites were run by professional business people? Or Roy the Boy after admitting he avoided the people he was supposed to be promoting? They would be sacked of course. I am not guessing that these sites are run by the clueless. I know. By a chain of circumstance I happened to know the casino/poker room manager of a very substantial Poker site. He had no experience whatsoever in poker or casinos or gambling or leisure or even entertainment marketing. In fact he had been a junior marketing guy for a consumer goods firm. Excellent
Fill your boots whilst you can.
Andy Ward, in his usual perceptive style, is having a dig at people who are sponsored in his recent blog entry, although his allusion might be a bit obscure for non-Brits. I agree with his sentiments but very much disagree with his outcomes - if you can get a sponsorship deal then as the curious gambling phrase goes, "fill your boots!" Because these times cannot last.
To explain my thinking, you will have to traverse back with me to the times of the Great Dot-com Explosion. These too were times of great wealth and little sense. I was fortunate, or maybe not, to be involved in a Dot-Bomb at the time. Many times I would meet with very intelligent people with great ideas, wonderful original ideas, but when asked "How do you make money?" they would come over all queasy and blank-eyed (incidentally my favorite answer was "monetize eyeballs"...that brings back the memories.) Internet poker and the sponsorship it brings is very reminiscent of this situation, well without the very intelligent people and ideas bit.
What in very simple terms do the sponsors get from their players? What has The Hendon Mob brought Prima that has justified its tremendous outlay? I don't know what their deal is, who pays RFB and other exes; nor do I know THM except by reputation and rumour. But its fairly clear that if THM were to have even a reasonably bad year, it would be very hard to justify that cost in terms of promotion and gained revenue from new players. In fact I think of myself as being very internet savvy, and to be frank I don't see what they are doing to bring revenue to Prima at all. Their site is mostly abandoned by them; they don't seem to be doing much promotion in terms of playing online; their results in events have mostly been in ones where there has been no logos anyway. The truth is that they are being sponsored because that is what Internet Poker Sites Do, not because of any real, tangible marketing $ to revenue benefit. And if the value of THM is questionable, what about Jac Arama?
What do you think would have happened to Ram and Barney in the recent Atlantic City events, as depicted in their diary, if poker sites were run by professional business people? Or Roy the Boy after admitting he avoided the people he was supposed to be promoting? They would be sacked of course. I am not guessing that these sites are run by the clueless. I know. By a chain of circumstance I happened to know the casino/poker room manager of a very substantial Poker site. He had no experience whatsoever in poker or casinos or gambling or leisure or even entertainment marketing. In fact he had been a junior marketing guy for a consumer goods firm. Excellent
Fill your boots whilst you can.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Shit into Caviar
YTD: +$3290.00
Ok, I'm officially giving up the 5-10 on Stars. Sure I have been unlucky, but I have also played pretty damn poorly in it too. In fact if I had sacked the 5-10 games at the start of the month, instead of now, I would be nearly $5k better off. So for now, multitabling it is instead.
Another quick comment before we get into the hand thing. I picked up Phil H's Play like the Pro's whatever book for a quick browse in Borders today. What a laugh. I'm sure the assistants were wondering what the tall fat guy in the Games section was chuckling at. The PLO section was a joy and pure Phil. If you feel like you want to buy it, send me the money instead - I have a roaring fire burning in my hearth that will save you the trouble.
Here's a very strange hand of PLO8b:
Game - (blinds $2/$4) Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo 8 -
Table "Fort-de-France" (real money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ($390.75 in chips)
Seat 2: OregonG ($205.75 in chips)
Seat 3: jackthepump ($426.50 in chips)
Seat 4: Villan ($789.50 in chips)
Seat 5: hunidoo ($432.50 in chips)
Seat 6: SmartyGL4110 ($118.75 in chips)
Seat 7: dauni ($1,120.50 in chips)
Seat 8: jbrave ($131.00 in chips)
Seat 9: sparky5 ($338.00 in chips)
Seat 10: PBAKID ($209.75 in chips)
PBAKID : Post Small Blind ($2)
Hero: Post Big Blind ($4)
jbrave : Post ($4)
Dealing...
Dealt to Hero [ 6h Qh 9d Jd ]
OregonG : Fold
jackthepump: Call ($4)
Villan: Call ($4)
hunidoo : Call ($4)
SmartyGL4110: Fold
dauni : Fold
jbrave : Check
sparky5 : Call ($4)
PBAKID : Call ($2)
Hero: Check
Free Garbage!
*** FLOP *** : [ 8h Ah Td ]
I've hit a really interesting flop. Of course there are lots of ways, against the field, that I could be in trouble, but the best way to find out is to bet.
PBAKID : Check
Hero: Bet ($20)
jackthepump: Fold
Villan: Raise ($88)
hunidoo : Fold
jbrave : Fold
sparky5 : Call ($88)
PBAKID : Call ($88)
This guy can be erratic, and the value is there for the str8 draws alone.
Hero: Call ($68)
*** TURN *** : [ 8h Ah Td ] [ Qs ]
PBAKID : Check
This is quite a good turn. I have the second nuts. However this is hilo and the pure nuts is much less likely to be here, especially as I have one blocker. If I check, it may get checked around, which would be ugly; if someone else bets I may call anyway. I need to make the low draws pay now.
Hero: Bet ($298.75)
Villan: Call ($298.75)
sparky5 : Call All-in ($246)
PBAKID : Call All-in ($117.75)
*** RIVER *** : [ 8h Ah Td Qs ] [ Qc ]
Bad river :-(
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $848 | Side pot 1: $384.75 | Side pot 2: $105.50 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 8h Ah Td Qs Qc ]
Hero bet $390.75, collected $1,338.25, net +$947.50 (showed hand) [
6h Qh 9d Jd ]
HI: a straight, eight to queen
Villan lost $390.75 [ 4h 8s 2s 3h ]
HI: two pair, queens and eights
sparky5 lost $338 (showed hand) [ 4c 3s 2h Jh ]
HI: a pair of queens
PBAKID lost $209.75 (showed hand) [ Kh 8d 7h 9c ]
HI: two pair, queens and eights
Huzzah!
An interesting thing about the hand is that if you run some twodimes sims, my equity on the turn is massive, even though a lot of cards were bad for me. It wasn't even that bad on the flop either. This is the way in which 8b is very different than hi only. It is very common, even starting with garbage, to have a hand that is absolutely crushing the opposition, especially if they are drawing for lows. This hand is a freak in that basically all the flush draws were dead, but it still shows that the game is one of playing big edges, not small ones. If only I could remember that in the 5-10 game :-)
Ok, I'm officially giving up the 5-10 on Stars. Sure I have been unlucky, but I have also played pretty damn poorly in it too. In fact if I had sacked the 5-10 games at the start of the month, instead of now, I would be nearly $5k better off. So for now, multitabling it is instead.
Another quick comment before we get into the hand thing. I picked up Phil H's Play like the Pro's whatever book for a quick browse in Borders today. What a laugh. I'm sure the assistants were wondering what the tall fat guy in the Games section was chuckling at. The PLO section was a joy and pure Phil. If you feel like you want to buy it, send me the money instead - I have a roaring fire burning in my hearth that will save you the trouble.
Here's a very strange hand of PLO8b:
Game - (blinds $2/$4) Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo 8 -
Table "Fort-de-France" (real money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ($390.75 in chips)
Seat 2: OregonG ($205.75 in chips)
Seat 3: jackthepump ($426.50 in chips)
Seat 4: Villan ($789.50 in chips)
Seat 5: hunidoo ($432.50 in chips)
Seat 6: SmartyGL4110 ($118.75 in chips)
Seat 7: dauni ($1,120.50 in chips)
Seat 8: jbrave ($131.00 in chips)
Seat 9: sparky5 ($338.00 in chips)
Seat 10: PBAKID ($209.75 in chips)
PBAKID : Post Small Blind ($2)
Hero: Post Big Blind ($4)
jbrave : Post ($4)
Dealing...
Dealt to Hero [ 6h Qh 9d Jd ]
OregonG : Fold
jackthepump: Call ($4)
Villan: Call ($4)
hunidoo : Call ($4)
SmartyGL4110: Fold
dauni : Fold
jbrave : Check
sparky5 : Call ($4)
PBAKID : Call ($2)
Hero: Check
Free Garbage!
*** FLOP *** : [ 8h Ah Td ]
I've hit a really interesting flop. Of course there are lots of ways, against the field, that I could be in trouble, but the best way to find out is to bet.
PBAKID : Check
Hero: Bet ($20)
jackthepump: Fold
Villan: Raise ($88)
hunidoo : Fold
jbrave : Fold
sparky5 : Call ($88)
PBAKID : Call ($88)
This guy can be erratic, and the value is there for the str8 draws alone.
Hero: Call ($68)
*** TURN *** : [ 8h Ah Td ] [ Qs ]
PBAKID : Check
This is quite a good turn. I have the second nuts. However this is hilo and the pure nuts is much less likely to be here, especially as I have one blocker. If I check, it may get checked around, which would be ugly; if someone else bets I may call anyway. I need to make the low draws pay now.
Hero: Bet ($298.75)
Villan: Call ($298.75)
sparky5 : Call All-in ($246)
PBAKID : Call All-in ($117.75)
*** RIVER *** : [ 8h Ah Td Qs ] [ Qc ]
Bad river :-(
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $848 | Side pot 1: $384.75 | Side pot 2: $105.50 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 8h Ah Td Qs Qc ]
Hero bet $390.75, collected $1,338.25, net +$947.50 (showed hand) [
6h Qh 9d Jd ]
HI: a straight, eight to queen
Villan lost $390.75 [ 4h 8s 2s 3h ]
HI: two pair, queens and eights
sparky5 lost $338 (showed hand) [ 4c 3s 2h Jh ]
HI: a pair of queens
PBAKID lost $209.75 (showed hand) [ Kh 8d 7h 9c ]
HI: two pair, queens and eights
Huzzah!
An interesting thing about the hand is that if you run some twodimes sims, my equity on the turn is massive, even though a lot of cards were bad for me. It wasn't even that bad on the flop either. This is the way in which 8b is very different than hi only. It is very common, even starting with garbage, to have a hand that is absolutely crushing the opposition, especially if they are drawing for lows. This hand is a freak in that basically all the flush draws were dead, but it still shows that the game is one of playing big edges, not small ones. If only I could remember that in the 5-10 game :-)
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Call of calls
YTD: +$1311.25
Here is a very interesting, very marginal hand I played on Paradise. It shows the importance of notes, but also of taking a bit of time to think through the options, something I am very guilty of not doing in many spots, but especially on the river.
(Blinds $2/$4) Pot Limit Omaha Hi -
Seat 1: quads ($393.25 in chips)
Seat 2: shoryuken ($400.00 in chips)
Seat 3: BigRichard ($220.00 in chips)
Seat 4: Hero ($396.75 in chips)
Seat 5: PhilBrodie ($289.25 in chips)
Seat 6: oldman ($1,511.25 in chips)
Seat 7: dauni ($450.00 in chips)
Seat 8: Kwtwa Kwtr ($947.50 in chips)
Seat 9: another ($835.50 in chips)
Seat 10: Foe ($368.00 in chips)
another : Post Small Blind ($2)
Foe : Post Big Blind ($4)
shoryuken: Sit out
Dealing...
Dealt to Hero [ 7s 4c 5c 6c ]
quads : Fold
BigRichard: Raise ($14)
Hero: Call ($14)
PhilBrodie: Fold
oldman : Fold
dauni : Fold
Kwtwa Kwtr: Fold
another : Call ($12)
Foe : Call ($10)
Standard call here.
*** FLOP *** : [ Kd 5h 8c ]
another : Check
Foe : Check
BigRichard: Check
Hero: Bet ($50)
another : Fold
Foe : Call ($50)
BigRichard: Fold
Again fairly standard, with a nice draw, the preflop raiser checking and a chance to win the button.
*** TURN *** : [ Kd 5h 8c ] [ Tc ]
Foe : Check
Hero: Bet ($120)
Foe : Call ($120)
More problematic. I’m both betting the flush draw for value, also setting up the river for a bluff if everything misses. Note that I’m thinking ahead here so I don’t bet the pot and leave him with an autocall on the river. Once he calls, I’m not sure I want to hit the flush :(
*** RIVER *** : [ Kd 5h 8c Tc ] [ Td ]
Not great.
Foe : Bet ($184)
This looks like a simple pass.
Or is it?
Sometimes you get a desperation bet here with something like an overpair by completely clueless types. But although the foe is not a great player, he isn’t quite that bad. He could also have hit trips and decided that as he will call, he may as well bet. But I have played this hand like I have a set, not a draw, and you would expect him to check this. Could my baby pair be winning? Could he have had a draw too and now having missed, sees a bluff as his only out? I looked up his notes. “Checks the nuts on the river”, it says. Hmmm. I am either going to look a genius or a loon.
Hero: Call ($184)
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $761 | Rake: $3
Board: [ Kd 5h 8c Tc Td ]
Hero bet $368, collected $761, net +$393 (showed hand) [ 7s 4c 5c
6c ] (two pair, tens and fives)
Foe lost $368 (showed hand) [4s 7c 6h Qc]
Genius is it then!
Of course this is a very marginal hand. He could have very easily had trips, or an overpair. But the play of the hand, thinking through the options, coupled with the extremely valuable note, just about pushed it into being a call.
If only my play had been as thoughtful all month!
Here is a very interesting, very marginal hand I played on Paradise. It shows the importance of notes, but also of taking a bit of time to think through the options, something I am very guilty of not doing in many spots, but especially on the river.
(Blinds $2/$4) Pot Limit Omaha Hi -
Seat 1: quads ($393.25 in chips)
Seat 2: shoryuken ($400.00 in chips)
Seat 3: BigRichard ($220.00 in chips)
Seat 4: Hero ($396.75 in chips)
Seat 5: PhilBrodie ($289.25 in chips)
Seat 6: oldman ($1,511.25 in chips)
Seat 7: dauni ($450.00 in chips)
Seat 8: Kwtwa Kwtr ($947.50 in chips)
Seat 9: another ($835.50 in chips)
Seat 10: Foe ($368.00 in chips)
another : Post Small Blind ($2)
Foe : Post Big Blind ($4)
shoryuken: Sit out
Dealing...
Dealt to Hero [ 7s 4c 5c 6c ]
quads : Fold
BigRichard: Raise ($14)
Hero: Call ($14)
PhilBrodie: Fold
oldman : Fold
dauni : Fold
Kwtwa Kwtr: Fold
another : Call ($12)
Foe : Call ($10)
Standard call here.
*** FLOP *** : [ Kd 5h 8c ]
another : Check
Foe : Check
BigRichard: Check
Hero: Bet ($50)
another : Fold
Foe : Call ($50)
BigRichard: Fold
Again fairly standard, with a nice draw, the preflop raiser checking and a chance to win the button.
*** TURN *** : [ Kd 5h 8c ] [ Tc ]
Foe : Check
Hero: Bet ($120)
Foe : Call ($120)
More problematic. I’m both betting the flush draw for value, also setting up the river for a bluff if everything misses. Note that I’m thinking ahead here so I don’t bet the pot and leave him with an autocall on the river. Once he calls, I’m not sure I want to hit the flush :(
*** RIVER *** : [ Kd 5h 8c Tc ] [ Td ]
Not great.
Foe : Bet ($184)
This looks like a simple pass.
Or is it?
Sometimes you get a desperation bet here with something like an overpair by completely clueless types. But although the foe is not a great player, he isn’t quite that bad. He could also have hit trips and decided that as he will call, he may as well bet. But I have played this hand like I have a set, not a draw, and you would expect him to check this. Could my baby pair be winning? Could he have had a draw too and now having missed, sees a bluff as his only out? I looked up his notes. “Checks the nuts on the river”, it says. Hmmm. I am either going to look a genius or a loon.
Hero: Call ($184)
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $761 | Rake: $3
Board: [ Kd 5h 8c Tc Td ]
Hero bet $368, collected $761, net +$393 (showed hand) [ 7s 4c 5c
6c ] (two pair, tens and fives)
Foe lost $368 (showed hand) [4s 7c 6h Qc]
Genius is it then!
Of course this is a very marginal hand. He could have very easily had trips, or an overpair. But the play of the hand, thinking through the options, coupled with the extremely valuable note, just about pushed it into being a call.
If only my play had been as thoughtful all month!
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Radar Down
YTD: -$1194.25
One of the many blessings, and perhaps curses, of playing online is that you can review key hands. As I have often stressed in this blog, the critical factor is not whether you win or lose, but the quality of the decisions you are making. And boy, am I making some shit decisions. About $2500 of stinkers so far this month. I really find it much more dispiriting and demoralizing to lose a little but play really badly, like I am now, than to lose a lot and know it was just the vagaries of fortune.
Here are some prime examples of poker “skill” in my best game of plo8b:
- I raise UTG with AKK2 and get reraised by a mostly unknown player. So he probably has AA or AA baby. I call and the flop comes T99 two spades. I have the bare A of spades. He bets and I check-raise him allin I nice chunky amount. He improves on his AA to make a small flush. There are so many mistakes in this hand that Sklansky style, I will leave it to others to elaborate.
- I raise in the CO with AJT4 ds and pick up a really bad player caller in the big blind. The flop comes AT9 offsuit and he bets the pot into me. Clearly he either has trips, two pair or a str8 draw, maybe even a wrap. Although the draw is the most likely of these, it also puts me in some considerable harm as it probably gives him a backdoor low too, meaning I have very very few cards to scoop on the turn and river. With this “in mind” I set myself allin to the tune of $1k. His monstrous but not entirely unexpected QJ87 scoops.
- Last, and certainly least in the brains stakes. I call UTG with A247 ds and call a late raise from the most aggressive player in plo8b history. The flop comes 38K mixed suits. I check call. The turn comes a Q giving me a baby flush draw too. I check raise a huge amount allin. Of course there two problems with this play, very different than the allin on the turn coups I have described before. This is that I have no showdown value. I could literally end up with A8 high, which even with this very aggressive opponent will not be winning. Secondly, if he does have a hand, I am likely to get paid off if I hit the perfecta of a low heart. Another meta-game issue is that this particular player has almost never passed to one of my check raises historically, and I knew that as I was doing it. My foe had an easy call with KKQ9 and a nice blank on the river flushed away my $1200.
If I keep on playing so well in my best game, it may turn out to be a long, long year.
One of the many blessings, and perhaps curses, of playing online is that you can review key hands. As I have often stressed in this blog, the critical factor is not whether you win or lose, but the quality of the decisions you are making. And boy, am I making some shit decisions. About $2500 of stinkers so far this month. I really find it much more dispiriting and demoralizing to lose a little but play really badly, like I am now, than to lose a lot and know it was just the vagaries of fortune.
Here are some prime examples of poker “skill” in my best game of plo8b:
- I raise UTG with AKK2 and get reraised by a mostly unknown player. So he probably has AA or AA baby. I call and the flop comes T99 two spades. I have the bare A of spades. He bets and I check-raise him allin I nice chunky amount. He improves on his AA to make a small flush. There are so many mistakes in this hand that Sklansky style, I will leave it to others to elaborate.
- I raise in the CO with AJT4 ds and pick up a really bad player caller in the big blind. The flop comes AT9 offsuit and he bets the pot into me. Clearly he either has trips, two pair or a str8 draw, maybe even a wrap. Although the draw is the most likely of these, it also puts me in some considerable harm as it probably gives him a backdoor low too, meaning I have very very few cards to scoop on the turn and river. With this “in mind” I set myself allin to the tune of $1k. His monstrous but not entirely unexpected QJ87 scoops.
- Last, and certainly least in the brains stakes. I call UTG with A247 ds and call a late raise from the most aggressive player in plo8b history. The flop comes 38K mixed suits. I check call. The turn comes a Q giving me a baby flush draw too. I check raise a huge amount allin. Of course there two problems with this play, very different than the allin on the turn coups I have described before. This is that I have no showdown value. I could literally end up with A8 high, which even with this very aggressive opponent will not be winning. Secondly, if he does have a hand, I am likely to get paid off if I hit the perfecta of a low heart. Another meta-game issue is that this particular player has almost never passed to one of my check raises historically, and I knew that as I was doing it. My foe had an easy call with KKQ9 and a nice blank on the river flushed away my $1200.
If I keep on playing so well in my best game, it may turn out to be a long, long year.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Fierce Creatures
YTD: +$665.90
I thought I would start off the year with an old favourite, PLO8b. One of the things I like about the game is that it enables you to mix both passivity and select aggression, perhaps more so than PLO where pure aggression itself is better rewarded. There is probably only one PLO8b player who plays like it is PLO in the 5-10 game on Stars, and he isn't that effective in ring games.
Hopefully this hand will help illustrate this approach.
PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha/8, $10 BB (9 handed) converter
CO ($829.30)
Button ($607.60)
SB ($939.50)
BB ($1000)
UTG ($728.25)
UTG+1 ($3271.85)
Hero ($1173.50)
MP2 ($1147)
MP3 ($280)
Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 2c, 9c, As, Td.
UTG calls $10, UTG+1 calls $10, Hero calls $10, 2 folds, CO calls $10, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.
This is standard call with a weakish A2 in early position. You want more callers in this spot.
Flop: ($60) 3h, 5c, Th (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $57, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $57, CO folds, SB folds, BB folds.
Again I don't mind picking up more callers behind me here. The interesting thing is that this player is a momentum type...he is almost certain to bet again on the turn. Also note my pair of tens alone may be in front.
Turn: ($174) Qs (2 players)
UTG bets $171,
This is a classic PL problem. I may be in front; I certainly have a good draw. Even if I am behind I have some outs to get out of trouble. It is very hard for him to be completely crushing me. Also, I cannot just call here as I know he will bet the river if a blank comes and I will have a tough call with just one pair. I must either fold or raise.
Hero raises to $684, UTG folds.
Final Pot: $1029
Main Pot: $516, won by Hero.
Pot 2: $513, returned to Hero.
When you believe you are either in front, or having a good draw on the turn, but you don't know which way you need to go and will struggle to make a decision on the river, then seriously consider raising if it will put you allin or thereabouts. This is a fairly common situation in all PLO-type games, although this is a "thin" example of it, driven by the fact I knew what kind of player it was.
Faithful readers may notice that this is a flip-side of the "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't" play I talked about in a previous post. Whereas in that example, you were often -EV against nearly all the possible range of hands of your foe, here you are either nicely +EV, or a small dog, coupled with the power of folding equity. A powerful combination.
I thought I would start off the year with an old favourite, PLO8b. One of the things I like about the game is that it enables you to mix both passivity and select aggression, perhaps more so than PLO where pure aggression itself is better rewarded. There is probably only one PLO8b player who plays like it is PLO in the 5-10 game on Stars, and he isn't that effective in ring games.
Hopefully this hand will help illustrate this approach.
PokerStars Pot-Limit Omaha/8, $10 BB (9 handed) converter
CO ($829.30)
Button ($607.60)
SB ($939.50)
BB ($1000)
UTG ($728.25)
UTG+1 ($3271.85)
Hero ($1173.50)
MP2 ($1147)
MP3 ($280)
Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 2c, 9c, As, Td.
UTG calls $10, UTG+1 calls $10, Hero calls $10, 2 folds, CO calls $10, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.
This is standard call with a weakish A2 in early position. You want more callers in this spot.
Flop: ($60) 3h, 5c, Th (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $57, UTG+1 folds, Hero calls $57, CO folds, SB folds, BB folds.
Again I don't mind picking up more callers behind me here. The interesting thing is that this player is a momentum type...he is almost certain to bet again on the turn. Also note my pair of tens alone may be in front.
Turn: ($174) Qs (2 players)
UTG bets $171,
This is a classic PL problem. I may be in front; I certainly have a good draw. Even if I am behind I have some outs to get out of trouble. It is very hard for him to be completely crushing me. Also, I cannot just call here as I know he will bet the river if a blank comes and I will have a tough call with just one pair. I must either fold or raise.
Hero raises to $684, UTG folds.
Final Pot: $1029
Main Pot: $516, won by Hero.
Pot 2: $513, returned to Hero.
When you believe you are either in front, or having a good draw on the turn, but you don't know which way you need to go and will struggle to make a decision on the river, then seriously consider raising if it will put you allin or thereabouts. This is a fairly common situation in all PLO-type games, although this is a "thin" example of it, driven by the fact I knew what kind of player it was.
Faithful readers may notice that this is a flip-side of the "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't" play I talked about in a previous post. Whereas in that example, you were often -EV against nearly all the possible range of hands of your foe, here you are either nicely +EV, or a small dog, coupled with the power of folding equity. A powerful combination.
Friday, December 31, 2004
This is the End, my only Friend
YTD: +$44955.06
Well no major surprises or upsets going into the last day. A nice little recovery to get me back in the black for December, which would have been even nicer but for some bad beats today :(
Some great hands to look forward to for next year, including my best ever call (?); shit to caviar in PLO8b; making a big move in PLO8b. Be there or be square!
Good luck and thanks for staying with me.
Have a great New Year.
Well no major surprises or upsets going into the last day. A nice little recovery to get me back in the black for December, which would have been even nicer but for some bad beats today :(
Some great hands to look forward to for next year, including my best ever call (?); shit to caviar in PLO8b; making a big move in PLO8b. Be there or be square!
Good luck and thanks for staying with me.
Have a great New Year.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
State of the Nation
YTD: +$ 44161.01
So a year in Poker is finally over. Or as near as we can get to it with Christmas and the New Year just over the horizon. As promised, I am going to share all my detailed stats on how I did over the year. All the win rates are taken in $ ph and are only used when they are a reasonable number of hours played. Yes, some of these results were the result of extensive multitabling; because the program I use for tracking Omaha results is less reliable than PTracker, all these figures are based off my spreadsheets instead of the more usual $/100 hands commonly used for the Net.
PLO + $27938.78
Although it certainly didn’t start off that way, this soon became my bread-and-butter game, contributing the vast bulk of my profits.
Best result: 5-10 at $159.40 ph; hours played 154 hours
PLO8b +$12,652.03
I didn’t play enough plo8b, which is strange considering I always considered it my best game. I guess I just lost sight of it and got caught up in other games. My 2-4 result was the best ph I had proportionally speaking. I was also disappointed with my result in the 5-10 game on Stars, where I basically broke even, although in my defence I only played very few hours.
Best result: 2-4 at $ 118.40 ph; hours played 93 hours
Limit Holdem +$5446.67
Holdem was the fallback position for when my play went awry during the year. It’s nice to know that I have a B game plan that I can turn to for a break. The main problem with it is that I basically find it too boring and routine, especially when I have to multitable to generate a healthy win rate. Also I found that my concentration tended to wane after a while and it was hard to put together long sessions.
Best result: 15-30 at $106.25 ph; hours played 112 hours
Limit Hilo -$2526.63
Despite pretension to the contrary I have to finally accept that I suck at this game. Last year was a mediocre set of results. This year was a slight negative. The game brings out the worse in me, putting me on tilt. And when the game gets short handed I’m mostly clueless and even more tiltful.
No real meaningful hours except 10-20, where I was a 21 bucks ph loser
Tourney -$234.04
Once again my tourney results have been nothing to shout home about, although I have played very few MTT at all. My worse game by far was NLHE, with 9 comps, $2736 outlay, no return! However this result was very skewed by the fact of a tilt/unlucky go at a $100 rebuy comp.
I have a 13% ROI on turbo 1 tables, which shows how little effort or focus I put into them. Most were $105 although some were $55. In general I returned a paltry 10% on NLHE across all types. I was a bit disappointed to see that I was -1% on MTT satellites for the big Sunday comps on Stars, especially as I had extolled their money-making virtues. But also I did play them kinda wild and often used them as a means to “let off steam” from the 5-10 PLO. I still think they are good value tho’. Surprisingly, I had a –VE PLO year, although again I only played a handful. PLO8b was a more impressive 52.5% although this isn’t as good as my 80% ROI across all kinds of Omaha comp over the last two years.
In general though, these figures highlight the main problem I have with MTTs. Even with a very good ROI, my hourly rate for them still ends up less than a good cash game. So why bother?
Best site
Stars of course with +$27k, followed by Party and its Skins with +$12k. Better still - no negative sites!
For Chaos – Rake was $10.5k as far as I could track it in cash games.
Goals for Next Year
Focus on PLO and PLO8b almost exclusively
Play even less tourneys but take shots at the big ones.
Don’t spend the bankroll :(
Win $60k (I think this is very achievable and I hope to be nearer 80 than 60)
Good luck and best wishes to you all!
So a year in Poker is finally over. Or as near as we can get to it with Christmas and the New Year just over the horizon. As promised, I am going to share all my detailed stats on how I did over the year. All the win rates are taken in $ ph and are only used when they are a reasonable number of hours played. Yes, some of these results were the result of extensive multitabling; because the program I use for tracking Omaha results is less reliable than PTracker, all these figures are based off my spreadsheets instead of the more usual $/100 hands commonly used for the Net.
PLO + $27938.78
Although it certainly didn’t start off that way, this soon became my bread-and-butter game, contributing the vast bulk of my profits.
Best result: 5-10 at $159.40 ph; hours played 154 hours
PLO8b +$12,652.03
I didn’t play enough plo8b, which is strange considering I always considered it my best game. I guess I just lost sight of it and got caught up in other games. My 2-4 result was the best ph I had proportionally speaking. I was also disappointed with my result in the 5-10 game on Stars, where I basically broke even, although in my defence I only played very few hours.
Best result: 2-4 at $ 118.40 ph; hours played 93 hours
Limit Holdem +$5446.67
Holdem was the fallback position for when my play went awry during the year. It’s nice to know that I have a B game plan that I can turn to for a break. The main problem with it is that I basically find it too boring and routine, especially when I have to multitable to generate a healthy win rate. Also I found that my concentration tended to wane after a while and it was hard to put together long sessions.
Best result: 15-30 at $106.25 ph; hours played 112 hours
Limit Hilo -$2526.63
Despite pretension to the contrary I have to finally accept that I suck at this game. Last year was a mediocre set of results. This year was a slight negative. The game brings out the worse in me, putting me on tilt. And when the game gets short handed I’m mostly clueless and even more tiltful.
No real meaningful hours except 10-20, where I was a 21 bucks ph loser
Tourney -$234.04
Once again my tourney results have been nothing to shout home about, although I have played very few MTT at all. My worse game by far was NLHE, with 9 comps, $2736 outlay, no return! However this result was very skewed by the fact of a tilt/unlucky go at a $100 rebuy comp.
I have a 13% ROI on turbo 1 tables, which shows how little effort or focus I put into them. Most were $105 although some were $55. In general I returned a paltry 10% on NLHE across all types. I was a bit disappointed to see that I was -1% on MTT satellites for the big Sunday comps on Stars, especially as I had extolled their money-making virtues. But also I did play them kinda wild and often used them as a means to “let off steam” from the 5-10 PLO. I still think they are good value tho’. Surprisingly, I had a –VE PLO year, although again I only played a handful. PLO8b was a more impressive 52.5% although this isn’t as good as my 80% ROI across all kinds of Omaha comp over the last two years.
In general though, these figures highlight the main problem I have with MTTs. Even with a very good ROI, my hourly rate for them still ends up less than a good cash game. So why bother?
Best site
Stars of course with +$27k, followed by Party and its Skins with +$12k. Better still - no negative sites!
For Chaos – Rake was $10.5k as far as I could track it in cash games.
Goals for Next Year
Focus on PLO and PLO8b almost exclusively
Play even less tourneys but take shots at the big ones.
Don’t spend the bankroll :(
Win $60k (I think this is very achievable and I hope to be nearer 80 than 60)
Good luck and best wishes to you all!
Monday, December 20, 2004
Two Questions
YTD: +$40541.11
As I am on an extended break over the Christmas period, my "State of the Nation" post will probably be my last major post of the year. So I thought I would give you, Constant Reader, the chance to have a say as to what is in it. Tell me what stats and figures you are interested in and I will include them, no-holds-barred.
The second question is for the maths boffins out there? How do we calculate implied odds, but more importantly, how do we see if we have met them? This could be especially important in PLO where you not only need to hit your hand but have it stand up.
Let me give an example. I make a loose call in PLO and call a $24 bet getting 3 to 1 odds. But I really needed 6 to 1 odds. I now have a short fall of $74 I need to make up on the turn to break even on the call. Say I hit my hand on the turn, but it will only stand up to the river 60% of the time. Does this mean that I actually need to make $123.33 on the turn to justify the call on the flop? Any help appreciated.
As I am on an extended break over the Christmas period, my "State of the Nation" post will probably be my last major post of the year. So I thought I would give you, Constant Reader, the chance to have a say as to what is in it. Tell me what stats and figures you are interested in and I will include them, no-holds-barred.
The second question is for the maths boffins out there? How do we calculate implied odds, but more importantly, how do we see if we have met them? This could be especially important in PLO where you not only need to hit your hand but have it stand up.
Let me give an example. I make a loose call in PLO and call a $24 bet getting 3 to 1 odds. But I really needed 6 to 1 odds. I now have a short fall of $74 I need to make up on the turn to break even on the call. Say I hit my hand on the turn, but it will only stand up to the river 60% of the time. Does this mean that I actually need to make $123.33 on the turn to justify the call on the flop? Any help appreciated.
Omaha Instructional
YTD: +$40199.56
One of the significant weaknesses I see in many player's games is the overplaying of draws against a made hand, especially when a pot is small. This is a flaw which I see in the very best of the 5-10 game to the ok players in the 2-4. Because they "know" that they are probably no worse than 6:4 dogs, and they are getting 2:1 on the action, they then proceed to lump in their stack against what surely must be a made hand. But these can be very -EV plays. Perhaps an example will make it clear. In a 2-4 game, unraised pot, I flop top trips on a 2TJ rainbow flop. My opponent bets the flop, I raise, he reraises, repeat till his $317 stack has gone :-)
So what has happened here, EV-wise? He has put in $317 to win $341 strange. This is 1.08 to 1 money odds. His "wrap" was just the top cards AKQ and I had a blocker in the 9. So his chance of winning was 1.67 to 1. The whole play has a -EV of about 20% and continually playing like this will soon send him to the poker hospital.
So how do you play it then?
Just call. You will have the right odds, or near enough in most cases, to call a blank turn. And if it pairs up you can pass. Also if you do hit the turn with your draw, you can bet and make him potentially make a very bad call to fill up.
Aggression is good, but not when it drives you to bankroll extinction.
One of the significant weaknesses I see in many player's games is the overplaying of draws against a made hand, especially when a pot is small. This is a flaw which I see in the very best of the 5-10 game to the ok players in the 2-4. Because they "know" that they are probably no worse than 6:4 dogs, and they are getting 2:1 on the action, they then proceed to lump in their stack against what surely must be a made hand. But these can be very -EV plays. Perhaps an example will make it clear. In a 2-4 game, unraised pot, I flop top trips on a 2TJ rainbow flop. My opponent bets the flop, I raise, he reraises, repeat till his $317 stack has gone :-)
So what has happened here, EV-wise? He has put in $317 to win $341 strange. This is 1.08 to 1 money odds. His "wrap" was just the top cards AKQ and I had a blocker in the 9. So his chance of winning was 1.67 to 1. The whole play has a -EV of about 20% and continually playing like this will soon send him to the poker hospital.
So how do you play it then?
Just call. You will have the right odds, or near enough in most cases, to call a blank turn. And if it pairs up you can pass. Also if you do hit the turn with your draw, you can bet and make him potentially make a very bad call to fill up.
Aggression is good, but not when it drives you to bankroll extinction.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Odds and Sods
YTD: +$41033.96
Well I thought I would kick off with one of the amusing PLO hands I have had of late. No not the one where I won a showdown pot for $800 with a pair of twos (?) but the following:
I check raise from UTG with AA double suited and get one caller, the original mini-raiser. The flop comes Kh 4h 8h - which is my suit - so I bet about 3/4 of the pot. The turn pairs the four and I bet the pot, which he calls and he calls the river with his remaining small change when a rag 9 comes. And what does he have? 4c 6s 7d 7h . That's right he called on the flop to hit a middle pin against a potential already made flush and then proceeded to flush his whole stack down with it. Sometimes I do wonder how much longer this kind of madness can continue.
On some miscellaneous topics:
Doyle's Poker Room and the VC skins
Ok...I wanted the book :-) At the table the VC software is ok, but it is too buggy and you can only play two games at once. The games are fantastic however. Several times, playing 10-20 holdem, I had to double check I wasn't playing some kind of free money game. The action made Party look like Stars, mostly fuelled by clueless Brits. The PLO and PLO8b, whilst a bit small, were similar mindless. Never has so much been given by so many with so little.
The Hendon Mob Forum
I've sacked it now. I may post when I want something, like today, but no more for anymore. The incident with Mad Marty in the UK Championship and the responses it drew were just mind boggling. After all the tourney drones wittering on about the importance of the integrity of the game for it to become a sport they then, by and large, just shrug their shoulders when *one of the fundamental rules of poker is broken on TV* It was a bit like a forward scoring a goal and the referee awarding it to the opposition.
On a more amusing note, has been the comments about Grumpy, sorry "Burnley", John. Fair play to the guy winning a big chunk of life changing change. But all the nonsense about what a great player he is and what a breakthrough year he's having, by people who have never played with him, is taking Doyle Disease to dizzy new heights. I have played with John for a reasonable period of time. It wouldn't be rude to say that prior to his win, he was one of many subsistence players that you see on the circuit. And unless he has suddenly metamorphosed his play, I can't imagine he gets people's knees quaking when he sits at the table either.
Card Player
The battle of the giants continues; who can produce the worse poker "journalism" in a month - Rob V or Allyn J? Its tough this month, I just can't separate them.
The Poker Bastard
After a promising start he seems to be flagging. Telling us that poker players are cunts is not breaking news. Saying that THM is the best poker site on the web shows a fierce lack of judgment. Where was the expose, long overdue, of chronic Bolivian Marching Powder use amongst the tourney "faces" that he alluded to? He seems to have gone all toothless.
Coming soon this month...a state of the nation review and detailed win rates for all my games! Woo hoo!
Well I thought I would kick off with one of the amusing PLO hands I have had of late. No not the one where I won a showdown pot for $800 with a pair of twos (?) but the following:
I check raise from UTG with AA double suited and get one caller, the original mini-raiser. The flop comes Kh 4h 8h - which is my suit - so I bet about 3/4 of the pot. The turn pairs the four and I bet the pot, which he calls and he calls the river with his remaining small change when a rag 9 comes. And what does he have? 4c 6s 7d 7h . That's right he called on the flop to hit a middle pin against a potential already made flush and then proceeded to flush his whole stack down with it. Sometimes I do wonder how much longer this kind of madness can continue.
On some miscellaneous topics:
Doyle's Poker Room and the VC skins
Ok...I wanted the book :-) At the table the VC software is ok, but it is too buggy and you can only play two games at once. The games are fantastic however. Several times, playing 10-20 holdem, I had to double check I wasn't playing some kind of free money game. The action made Party look like Stars, mostly fuelled by clueless Brits. The PLO and PLO8b, whilst a bit small, were similar mindless. Never has so much been given by so many with so little.
The Hendon Mob Forum
I've sacked it now. I may post when I want something, like today, but no more for anymore. The incident with Mad Marty in the UK Championship and the responses it drew were just mind boggling. After all the tourney drones wittering on about the importance of the integrity of the game for it to become a sport they then, by and large, just shrug their shoulders when *one of the fundamental rules of poker is broken on TV* It was a bit like a forward scoring a goal and the referee awarding it to the opposition.
On a more amusing note, has been the comments about Grumpy, sorry "Burnley", John. Fair play to the guy winning a big chunk of life changing change. But all the nonsense about what a great player he is and what a breakthrough year he's having, by people who have never played with him, is taking Doyle Disease to dizzy new heights. I have played with John for a reasonable period of time. It wouldn't be rude to say that prior to his win, he was one of many subsistence players that you see on the circuit. And unless he has suddenly metamorphosed his play, I can't imagine he gets people's knees quaking when he sits at the table either.
Card Player
The battle of the giants continues; who can produce the worse poker "journalism" in a month - Rob V or Allyn J? Its tough this month, I just can't separate them.
The Poker Bastard
After a promising start he seems to be flagging. Telling us that poker players are cunts is not breaking news. Saying that THM is the best poker site on the web shows a fierce lack of judgment. Where was the expose, long overdue, of chronic Bolivian Marching Powder use amongst the tourney "faces" that he alluded to? He seems to have gone all toothless.
Coming soon this month...a state of the nation review and detailed win rates for all my games! Woo hoo!
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