First Weekly Game..

Excellent night with the fans. It started out slow and stayed that way. We only had a couple of people playing. I really do not like short games, but at least it was with fun people. The hand of the night:

#Game No : 1007220530
***** Hand History for Game 1007220530 *****
$0.5/$1 Hold'em - Thursday, September 30, 22:41:13 EDT 2004
Table SirFWALGMan's pvt table 1 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 3
Seat 4: squaptor ( $3.62 )
Seat 6: doubleas ( $540.25 )
Seat 8: SirFWALGMan ( $39.13 )
SirFWALGMan posts small blind [$0.25].
squaptor posts big blind [$0.5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ Ad Qh ]
SirFWALGMan: hope that girl likes you squat
SirFWALGMan raises [$0.75].
squaptor raises [$1].
SirFWALGMan raises [$1].
squaptor calls [$0.5].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6d, 7h, As ]
SirFWALGMan bets [$0.5].
squaptor raises [$1].
SirFWALGMan raises [$1].
squaptor is all-In.
SirFWALGMan calls [$0.12].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Kc ]
SirFWALGMan shows [ Ad, Qh ] two pairs, aces and sixes.
squaptor shows [ 7s, 2d ] two pairs, sevens and sixes.
SirFWALGMan wins $6.74 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and sixes.
lol
aewsome hand to go out on dude!

“The Hammer” let him down but he almost had me. I really was reading people well at the table for some reason. I almost always caught DoubleAs bluffing. As I joked with him “Maybe it is because you bluff all the time” .. you No Limit guys! It is hard to scare someone off a pot for a buck!

The final tally.. Squator, DoubleAs, Todd Commish, Chris Halverson poked his head in to say “Hi”. Iggy made an appearance. I do not know what it is about Iggy but something about his play immediately puts me on Tilt. I cannot imaging how bad it would be in a casino face to face. Perhaps this is his main Poker skill. I do not know. All kidding aside he comes to the table and really played well. He bluffed a lot I believe, but mostly with good cards. His bluffing skills are really good. He never hesitates and makes you believe he has it, and if you do not believe him, he makes you pay next time when he has it.

Congrats to DoubleA for winning a place in the TEC. I forget what he gets to play for, but it sounded really good.. I am sure he will write it up.

I ended up almost doubled up which was nice. Cards were really good to me at the begging, as well as DoubleA, so I ended up doing nicely. I played really loose because the game was short. I am not sure exactly how to adjust my game for four players, but I know playing only premium hands is a good way to get blinded out. So I decided to take my winnings and hit the 20/2 limit tourney. If I lose then I am up 38 bucks for the night (including some ½ I played earlier). If I win then who knows. I might even crack the elusive 1K ceiling I seem to find myself in. Here is to some good cards! Out in 10th place. QQ lost to 89 when it made a straight, and the same guy with K10 when I raised pre-flop and was betting and raising my QQ’s to the river. What a moron. Except I lost. Lol.

Luxor Freerolls

*** FREE POKER TOURNAMENTS ***
Tuesday 7pm Hold 'Em $1,600 Freeroll
Friday 7pm Hold 'Em $1,600 Freeroll
Sunday 5pm Bonus Tournament $3,000
Wednesday 4pm Bonus Tournament $3,000
(LIVE DOCUMENTED PLAY REQUIRED)
10 hours for Hold 'Em before a Tuesday or Friday or 6 hours before a Wednesday or Sunday (Rules posted in the poker room). Free football pool Monday nights. Off season Monday night $1,100 and Tuesday morning $1,100 High Hand Giveaway (Rules posted in the poker room).

Anyone ever play in the Luxor's Freerolls? Are they any good? Is it like first 200 people that show up get to play? How do you document your live play? A buddy of mine wants to give it a try and I thought someone out there must have done this kind of thing before.

Sirs Table

I have been thinking about the most fun Poker game I have had in the past few months and most of them have been with Bloggers. I just really like playing you guys. It is great to add some of the social portion back into the game instead of always watching the Red Sox. On most tables the only way I am going to get anyone to talk is if I taunt them mercilessly until they tilt and start screaming at me every time I win a pot.

In order to play against some more of you I thought I would setup a regular Online game at Empire. Anyone who is interested can stop on by. I will post the password of the week before the game and see who shows up. In addition I will post the table number when the game starts. I will definitely take suggestions on what we should play but let's start with a friendly low-stakes .50/1 game of limit Holdem. Bloggers and readers will all be welcome. The best time for me is Thursday after 9:00. I will also take suggestions for the date and time. I hope to see some people there. Do not worry about playing against me.. I suck. Just ask BB.

The first game will be this Thursday Night. Sorry for the short notice. If you cannot make it then maybe next week. Look for the table that says SirFWALGMan. The password for this week will be sirstable. I will fire it up around 8:45-9:00 and keep it going for at least an hour. If people actually showup then I will keep it going until you want to leave.

BB and Me

I LOVE playing with Bloggers! It is a lot of fun. I was playing with Kinda-Not-Nice Blood tonight. I was having a ball. I went on a card rush the likes you have never seen before. I mean I pulled down a $20+ pot with Ace High! Wow! I think this is why I always will see what the better has. I got like 4 trips in a row. It was these trip hands that put me up over $100 on both tables I was at. I gave about $11 back on each table and decided to call it a night. A 40BB night is nothing to sneeze at.

BB and I were having some friendly banter. The whole table started getting in on it. I was having a great time. I was telling everyone at the table that I was on a card rush and they should not play against me unless they wanted to lose! Still they kept coming. The only bad hand of the night when A8 cracked my AK with an 8 on the board. Whatcha gonna do. I love card rushes. They really give you a euphoric feeling! Like nothing can stop you! I think it is contagious.

The best hand of the night. I have 33 and by the river I have 1 card to the straight. I assume nobody has 3-6 because I have both 3’s, so my straight is going to be the nut straight. If I am wrong then so be it. So I have to decide is it worth it for a 18+ pot to call the last 2$ for the straight. I have 4 outs. I also have 1-2 outs if a 3 falls because I *might* win that. I am bad at calculating Pot odds but I have to assume that this is a –EV call. I type in the chat “Hmmm.. Do I feel lucky?”.. and I call the bet. BAM! A five falls on the river. I would have made a lot more if I did not make that comment but so be it. I still had one guy out of the four call me. I would have called me too.

Second best hand was when AQ bet me down to the river with nothing but AQ high. I went with him for the minimum bet because I felt the pot was large enough to do it and I had AK. It ended up being $25. I KNEW for a fact I was beat.. except.. Ace High King Kicker took the $25, I was freaking out!!! I was soooooo surprised! Bahahahah!

So I left the tables with a nice 40+BB win. I am happy with that. It has been the best night I have had in 4-5 days and I needed it. I am such a wimp. Oh well. I will get better.

BTW - Side Note: Can anyone reccomend a good Omaha book. I do not know what they play at Empire. I guess it would be Omaha High? No low stuff. Let me know.

No Hands Holdem

Maudie recently wrote a post about No Hands Holdem. It is basically a calculator that allows you to see % change of winning and gives advice on Bet, Raise or Fold. I wonder if anyone would consider this cheating? I am a little on the fence. On one hand it makes a lot better split decisions on how I am currently doing. I like this. I should be able to do this in my head but I cannot yet, so this might be cheating. However, is it cheating if I read SSHE starting hands. I have no idea how to calculate what hands would be good to call, raise, fold for starting hands. So am I cheating? Would Felicia approve?

Anyway I decided to try the program out as a little experiment. I wanted to just see how good it was and have posted my observations. I think if I could play half as well as the computer I would do well. I also have changed my mind on bots. I used to think it was very unlikely because I thought the client was written in Java. Now that I know it is windows I know that I personally could write one that works on Empire and plays all the hands for me. It would miss some bluffing and cost me money sometimes but I think it might make more money than I do now! Shows how bad of a post-flop player I am.

Seems good Pre-Flop. Possibly a little passive. It basically seems to play SSHE tight starting hands where I have moved down to loose for the Empire Fishies. AK is not a raising hand. AKs is. Hmm. The play Post Flop just shows me how passive I really am! Good example. AKs. Raised pre-flop. Hit an Ace on the flop. Two of us left. He bets. The program tells me to raise! RAISE! WTF! Ok, so I raise. Next card is a low card too. Raise. RAISE???!?!?! Yes Dummy, Raise. Checked to me on the river. I bet. He folds a $24 pot to me. Would have been half as large if I stayed in. We agree most of the time on what to play pre-flop which says to me that I am playing this part well.

It also tells me to fold more. I seem to believe it is correct most of the time. One example of where I agreed and might not have folded. I had KQ suited. The flop was A-2-10. I bet that. The next card is an A. In the past I would have probably called. I was told to fold and took the advice this time. The pot was not large enough.

Another example of post-flop play I did not agree with. I have As10d. The flop is a scary three spades. I make the spade and I win. Period. The middle position bets. I raise him. Two reasons for this: Bluff him out and just take the pot, or get paid off in spades when/if I make my flush. I believe he was 4 to a flush also. He folded and I won. I believe this was a better play.

I believe that the program is a little passive pre-flop. Holy crap! I just scared the crap out of myself and won a pot. I had 55. I bet in early position. I hit the scary flop of **A-5-2** verify table 12579 ** It tells me to raise. I do. A VERY scary 3 comes out. HOLY CRAP! YIKES! CHECK! DO NOT BET! It says bet. Ok. I will bet. I get raised. It says shove it back at him baby! WHAT!?!?! OK. I did it. Snivel. Last card was not helpful to anyone. I bet. I get called. I win a $27 pot with a SCARY ass straight on the board. Yikes! So now I fourteen bucks up instead of just a few! Nice. I see why I am called Passive betting the board. I should change my name to SirChickenAlot.

I like how the program will tell me to fold if anything scary is on the board. I need to adjust these recommendations depending on my read of people, but some things I might take a shot at it tells me to shut up and fold. It also tells you to fold if your flop totally misses. Sometimes I like to chase the A high stuff like a dummy.

I just lost a lot on a capped flop to 22. He had the trips. I had AKs and the flop was 2AK. DAMN! Oh well. It happens. I think I played it well anyways. If I had won I would be up to $100 instead of down to $41. Not a bad shot to take. A straight draw was also on the board by the end. It sucks but it happens.

It seems like when the board says you *might* be beat you should slow down a little.. However the program does not take this into account. I had a straight with a flush possibility on the board. Why bet that out on the river? Call the flush persons bet maybe, but I personally would not bet on it.

Anyways I played one hour’s worth just to get a feel for what it does. I was impressed. I ended up down fifty bucks!. Obviously one game does not mean much, but it was not much fun. Freaking aggression killed me! Lol. It really does not know when it is beaten, kind of like me. I probably will not use it anymore. I wanted to try it out, and now that I have I am satisfied that it is a cool program I figure I will go it myself. At least I lose slower.

Hands of the night. AA cracked by Q2s, KK cracked by 47. It would have lost to AA anyway. K over Q boat split with another guy. Basically another bad night. Sigh.

FFL

Well.. my team, the Boston Bullets took a major loss! Lets just say I need Vinny Testicles to do well tonight if I even want to break 100! I need him to give me over sixty points if I want to win. No way that is going to happen. I knew I was in trouble because my team had too many Patriots. Just was not sure how much trouble. I got creamed. You know your team has had a bad week when the Defence score the most points. I got stuck with Miami's QB because Carolina was not playing either. Feeley scored me like 4 points. Niiiiicee! The Drunken Bastards continue their dominating run. Oh well. What can you do? I will be making my adjustments tomorrow and hoping for the best. Who knows, maybe Vinnie will come through! lol.

Perspective

Chris Halverson had a good point about my Dry Spell. Having 2-3 days where your cards do not run well is not a Dry Spell. Last nights 25BB win was the first up night I have had in the last 2-3 days. I could have had a nice up night Saturday but I gave it all back.

Everything is perspective though. I have yet to hit the 2 week to a month bad spell. I have no idea how I will handle it. So far I think poorly. It is good to see some of the tendencies that will kill me if I have weeks of bad cards.

1. I never like leaving a session down. I REALLY need to work on that one. The whole "One long session" thing I buy into but not fully or I would be able to say "It's 12:00, I am down 10BB, time to go to sleep and hit it tomorrow", instead of staying up until 2AM trying to lose some more.

2. Trying to win it back quickly. I did not do the full tilt thing of old where I went up levels. I heard the 2/4 calling my name, but was able to resist. I did try to play a few NL cash games and tourneys when I was down though. You know the thinking. Get a quick pop! Make back what you lost quickly. yadda yadda. This ugly tendency keeps rearing it's head. I just need to keep fighting it.

3. Questioning your play too much is another thing that happens. I think it can be good though. I really do think my game needs some adjustments. If I am heading straight up and not losing at all then I tend to look less critically at my game. Hey, I am winning, right? This is a really bad attitude. Daily wins and loses mean nothing. You should always look at your game critically.

4. Wanting to get back up to the "level you were at" is another one of my tendencies. Once I make (x) dollars I think I deserve to be there. I look at my Bankroll now and I say "I was at $1066, I am now at $925, so I am down". Instead I really need to forget the bankroll and just play the game. If I do that then I will get where I need to be in the long run.

Anyway I give alot of credit to anyone who has gone through a few weeks or months of losing sessions and came out the other side. It takes alot of confidence in your game to do this I think. Just three days of it has me questioning everything. Hopefully people who are going through real bad streaks will remember people like Chris have been there and made it through. You can too.

Introspect

Decent night so far. Got some cards and I am up 25BB on one table, break even on the other. I won Dr. Pauly’s contest but I think I am a few days late. I cracked AA with Hiltons on the river. The AA was just calling me to the river! Wow! Perhaps Dr. Pauly will send me a picture of a painting.. lol.

I have been thinking about my game a lot the last few days. I believe this is the only good thing about a dry spell. It makes you either scream at luck, or take a look at your game, or both. I think it has improved a lot but post-flop play still needs a lot of work. I have really been trying to think about my plays in context with the board and the next steps. I.E. Does my 55 make a flush for someone if I hit it on the turn? How many people are likely to see the next card? How much is in the pot? I have a disease in my game I will call “Righteous Indignity Syndrome!” I cannot stand to be bluffed. 22A on the board. Show me your two, because I will pay you off if I have the A! Just because I hate evil bluffers! I exaggerate a little here, but you get the idea. Probably why I suck in NL cash games! So I have been changing that a little, and trying to know when I am beat or will likely is beat even if I get what I want. So what if I make the three of a kind and nobody has the flush. The times they do will cost me more than the ones where they do not. I am not advocating always folding but pick your battles. I think I need tweaks in my game because my usual session holds wide swings, and it just depends if I am on the up or down as to if I win. I think I can limit this a bit.

Man are the Hilton Sisters putting out tonight! I mean like pull out the video camera and spank my behind time. Won a nice pre-flop capped pot with them called to the river by two guys as well as cracking the Aces. Way to go ladies!

The Hand of Shame

I figured I would post the hand I got beat on with 2-3. I think I played it ok, except when the second 3 appeared. I just totally could not figure any reality where someone caps a pre-flop with a 3. Sorry. I think this is the problem some pro's have playing against amatures. I think this is why the amatures knock out the pros alot in the WSOP. I was also mistaken when I said the 3rd three came on the turn, it was actually on the flop. It was also s0000ted. lol.

I still am going up and down. I think my game has changed alot and I need to adjust with it. I need to keep being aggresive, but with the right hands. Draws with only one other guy in, best hand with a flush draw looming.. need to be a little careful here. I need to know when I am beat too. Sometimes I just do not want to lay down. On the good side I think it is just a few small adjustments here and there and I will be a more solid player.

***** Hand History for Game 988929046 *****
$1/$2 Hold'em - Sunday, September 26, 00:00:21 EDT 2004
Table Table 11358 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 3: goodfriarx ( $63.5 )
Seat 4: SirFWALGMan ( $22.5 )
Seat 5: iamdunker ( $78.5 )
Seat 6: lulli123 ( $62 )
Seat 7: copoka ( $54 )
Seat 8: Tom301 ( $62.75 )
Seat 10: kinzelman ( $5.75 )
Seat 1: royjy ( $40.25 )
Seat 9: Kubla ( $64.75 )
Seat 2: jojo61737 ( $46 )
Kubla posts small blind [$0.5].
kinzelman posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ As Ac ]
royjy folds.
jojo61737 calls [$1].
goodfriarx folds.
SirFWALGMan raises [$2].
iamdunker calls [$2].
lulli123 calls [$2].
copoka folds.
Tom301 folds.
Kubla folds.
kinzelman raises [$2].
jojo61737 calls [$2].
SirFWALGMan raises [$2].
iamdunker calls [$2].
lulli123 calls [$2].
kinzelman calls [$1].
jojo61737 calls [$1].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, Jd, 3s ]
kinzelman bets [$1].
jojo61737 folds.
SirFWALGMan raises [$2].
iamdunker raises [$3].
lulli123 folds.
kinzelman is all-In.
SirFWALGMan calls [$1].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3c ]
SirFWALGMan bets [$2].
iamdunker raises [$4].
SirFWALGMan raises [$4].
iamdunker raises [$4].
SirFWALGMan calls [$2].
** Dealing River ** [ Kc ]
SirFWALGMan: hope you have a 3
SirFWALGMan bets [$2].
iamdunker raises [$4].
SirFWALGMan calls [$2].
iamdunker shows [ 2h, 3h ] four of a kind, threes.
kinzelman doesn't show [ 6d, 7d ] three of a kind, threes.
SirFWALGMan doesn't show [ As, Ac ] a full house, Threes full of aces.
iamdunker wins $26.50 from side pot #1 with four of a kind, threes.
iamdunker wins $24.75 from the main pot with four of a kind, threes.

JESUS!

WTF is up with Empire Poker Players! MFA!!!!!!&*!&*(@*#@*(&@&*()!@&*(@&*(!@)*(!)@*()*(!@)*(!@)*()*(@!@!)* Here is the worst beat I have ever taken. Capped Pre-Flop. Guess what this little MFA had? 23o! Guess what he got. Four of a Kind 3's on the river to beat my A over 3 boat! Now I do not think I am able to enter my own contest, but this has to be a candidate for worst beat ever! It did not help that I had several others for the night. Man some days Poker can REALLY piss you off. BTW - Only one person wanted the $25 for the Bad Beat Contest. If anyone else wants to send me there Bad Beats then they might be able to win also.

Slight Change of Strategy...

In SSHE the definition of a “Loose Game” is 6-8 players seeing the flop. I agree that is a loose game. However, I think you could say that any game where people are regularly calling to the river with Q3 would be considered a loose game also, right? So I am relaxing my calling standards a little at the 1/2 level and conforming to the loose game. Does anyone think that this thinking is faulty in some way? Let me know.

I will let you know if the experiment works at all. I think that I am not getting into enough pots. The few pots I get into if I loose one or two that kills my night. BTW – The definition of hands you can play in a loose game is not that much higher than a tight game in the book. It mostly lets you play more hands from early position. You also get a few more s000ted in there. It is still what most people would consider really tight.

I also am going to play a little less per session. If I get up 30-40 on a table, I am going to be disciplined and walk away once I lose 10 of it. I tend to get way up and then tend to think I need to give it all back before I leave. I think 1-2 hours per session, and then a break of at least ½ hour is probably good.

I have to share this hand. I played it soooooo wrong. The hand starts and is capped. Three people in. The flop is J-7-3. The guy before me is raising his ass off and I am merrily raising into him with my AA. The turn is a 3, and the river is something else not scary. So what do you think my AA was cracked by? JJ? Good guess. I am an idiot for not at least considering that. Nope. It was 77! Someone capped it off with 77!!!?!?!?!! Damn! I put him on AA, KK, or AK. Big mistake considering party players. Lost thirty bucks on the hand. Have since recovered it but this is an example I think of not realizing when I am beat and at least slowing down. Let me tell you $80 is a hell of a lot better place to be than $49 and almost break even! Oh No! I was just dealt KK! I am folding!!!! Ok. So I won that one.

One other neat thing tonight. I have a guy classified as a fish by the PT stats. He is up to $138 at this point. So either he bought in for $200. I do not have enough hands to really classify him, or every fish has there day! Actually all the “fish” at my table are way up. Wow! It must mean the table is not taking advantage of the passive nature of these players. The one rock is way down. Heh. I think I do not have enough hands to judge these people. I think most of them I have < 100 hands. Althought Mo’s (Rock) 8.50 has lasted for a long time!

Preliminary findings for my new strategy. Up $50 on one table and $30 on the other. So we will see. Way too few hands, but I think I am on to something since A-10 vs A-3 seems to be a very common occurrence.

@^&#&**($$

Bad Beats Continue On. Damn! Flushes rivered by Boats, Boats beaten by 4 of a Kind. You would think by being tight I would see less flops and lose less. Bah! heh. Anyway.. I am very discouraged. I am down over $200 for the past week. Crap. It was nice when I was running well!

A few things I see about my game. I never know when to Fold. If I have JJ and the flop has a K on it, when do I fold? Do I wait and try to catch my third jack? How about JJ vs Two Suited on the board? Try and avoid the flush? I dunno. Poker Tracker is interesting. In 5600 hands I lose the most with One Pair, followed by High Card. One pair loses for me about as much money as Boat, Flush, and Straight make for me. I think this is a problem. What do you do about it though? Do you never play the high pair? Do you check it -- aggression wise you take a hit, and your not protecting your high pairs. If I lose so much money with them should I just check them all the time? Who knows. Any ideas?

Me! Arg!

I do not have enough hands in PT but the initial read says I am a sLAP! Slightly Loose Agressive Pre-Flop, Passive Post-Flop. I am using the standards from BisonBison which seem to be used widely. Here is the link:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?
Cat=&Number=923884&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7
&fpart=1#923884

So what does sLA-P say? Is a sLA-P a good type to be? Anyone know what this means about me? What kind of things I should look for? What is the best type to be? I assume a sLAP is not too bad since it was associated with a frown, at least it is not a fish! I have some interesting stats on other Poker Bloggers too! Bahahaha! Actually Maudie is the only one I have played enough with to get a read on. heh. Al I have all of 4 hands for. He won every one. Be scared. Be Very Scared. lol.

I downloaded the PT Beta and so far so good. The Import Function for 89 files is VERY slow. Oh well. Hope the final release comes out this weekend.

***** UPDATE: I used PT's new feature to import 5000 hands that were in my PT subfolders on my PC. I have now been upgraded to a TA-P Tight Aggressive Pre-Flop, Passive Post-Flop. I think this is better than a slap. I went from frowny face to warning sign. Hmm. I attribute the change from sL to T to SSHE.

Of course this means nothing when playing against The Hammer. I flopped the Flush on the river, and I get raised to 4BB. I am raising all along. It turns out the last 227 gave the guy a full house on the river exactly the same time it gave me a flush. Stupid Hammer!

A Dwarf Named Iggy

Go and read Iggy’s dwarf post. I still do not know if he was joking or not. Here is what I pictured though when reading his post:

A Yoda like figure on the back of a fat poker player saying "Use the force luke. Will the cards to you, hmmm, yes! The force is strong with this one.”

“Yes master Yoda, and I hope that is your light saber sticking into the back of my neck”.

“Hmmm.. You may never know young apprentice. Hmm. Yes. Hehhmmmhmmm.”

If he was not joking then.. ahh screw it, its only a joke. Report me to the NAADP. National Association for Advancement of Dwarf People. If he was joking then way to sweat people iggster. *I know I am just asking for it with this post*

Down Night..

Lousy night. Dropped almost $100. Damn! I could not do anything right tonight. I did well in a few tourneys -- 2nd in a $10/1 and Bubble and 3rd in a 22/2. So I lost a little there. I busted out of one table. I tried some NL and my AK gets beat by AQ on the river with a straight! I had him dominated! wahhh. Heh.

Oh well. I stopped the bleeding at $960 and decided to wait until tomorrow. I am really anxious to make it to $1200 but I need to keep my cool and just wait for it. Deep Breath. Hope for some better cards tomorrow night.

I REALLY like the limit tourneys. They take alot longer than NL tourneys, but I seem to always finish well. I was 4th in the one I lost tonight. If I had just been a little more patient I would have probably made it to the money. It is hard to be patient when the blinds are crazy. At the end of the tourneys it does not matter how much you have. Every call could either put you in first or out. I mean $800 blinds where the average stack is 3K!!! Please. It becomes more like NL. I am still going to play more 20/2 tourneys. See if I can get some more first place finishes. I am up to 486 hands in PT. Not sure what it is telling me yet, but I guess we will see.

Ye Gods of the Poker World

You have heard me mention the Poker Gods, and the Goddess of Poker and several other references to the deities. I have never really defined the spiritual world of the Poker Gods as I see it probably because I never gave much thought to it. However with my recent success I think it is high time I gave face to these mythical creatures.

Ace on High

Regal and majestic he rules from his perch on high. He is the giver of the Monster Hands. The AKs in the pocket. When you have been blessed by him playing pre-flop is easy. Raise. Raise. Raise. His majestic AA is a site to behold.

The King of the Game

The King represents the mastery of the game. The correct move independent of the end results. His followers are the long-term winners. The Jack and Queen may derail him in the sort term but he rules over them with an iron fist. He will never lose.

The Queen Goddess of Poker.

She is the one in my Ode. The Mistress of luck. Both good and bad. The Queen of Poker. She is a fickle lady and on any day she might bring you to the heights or smash you on the rocks. You know you are in trouble when you get her twin images in hand. How many times have the “Hilton Sisters” screwed you? Yet you keep playing them. Because when they decide to bless you it is truly wonderful.

Bad Beat Jack

He is the trickster of Norse mythology. Loki. The troublemaker. Blame this deity when your AA gets beat by 27o on the river. He is the patron God of the gambooler.. Any two cards could be blessed by him. Capped pre-flops are his favorite. Play that 10-7 and he will reward you as you make your two pair! The King of his world his domain is the river. Beware his evil laugh!

Fun Night at .50/1

I was playing some 1/2 making my bread and butter when I got a run of slow cards. So I decide to check and see who's hanging around. I saw ITC and Ani. So I decide to go play some .50/1 with Ani. It turns out Maudie was there. I originally thought her screen name was AntMaudie. It is not. I will not say what it is. It was kinda slow playing with those two. Nobody was talking. I think people do not want to bother other people. Either that or they do not want to be accused of collusion. Who knows.

The first hand at the table was QQ. The Hilton Sisters. Bitches! Cracked by K2.. and yes, I did raise pre-flop, and yes, I did bet out, and yes I did get rivered by K2. Instead of being pissed off I type "I am gonna love this table", and it was true.

A few minutes later Al comes by drunk (yes that probably is his usual state) and really made the table loosen up. He threatened to raise or fold everything. He did not. Guess he was too drunk or something. Al was funny as hell. He made me laugh so hard. I really was enjoying myself. I think he ended up a few bucks before he had to leave.

The Hiltons came and sat on my lap again later on and this time they put out. I raised 72o in late position and got 6 callers or something. Freaking crazy! I got a 7 on the flop so I figured I had to play it. I ended up losing to Q2o. The only other memorable hand of the night was a total and complete bluff. I raised KQd in middle position. I was kind of bored from waiting for a good hand so figured I would try it. I also decided at that point that I would bet the hand with the Auto-Bet feature all the way to the river, and jump in. I had 6 callers or so at this point. Well, the flop was all low cards, the turn and river did not help, and my final bet on the river caused all 4 people remaining in the hand to fold. I never show my hands, but this was a must show and I did. I asked "Who had the 9?". I am sure I have never had a bluff work at .50/1, but I guess that rock like persona worked out.
I played the good hands and ended up almost doubled up. Was up around $55 for the night at $1055. Not bad. I really like SSHE. I finished the book. I know I am applying only 50% of the book correctly. However it seems to have had an impact.

I bought Poker Tracker and will be posting my stats when I get 10K hands in there. I need to ask about my play. With 326 hands in PT my worst hand is ATs at -9$. The best is AJs at $29. Have won the most money on the button. Second most in second position. hmm. Two Pair is my most winning hand. One Pair or High Card is worst. BB per hour is a whoping 12.44. The funny thing is that 1/2 and .50/1 have the same hourly rate. Hmm. I guess that means I am playing the same just making twice as much. My aggression factor is all over the place. It has settled into .76 after tonight, but it was as high as 1.5 at one point. Not sure what a good number should be. I fold 72% of my hands pre-flop. I think this is a good number. Maybe a little low? I win 34% of my hands when I see the flop. Is this any good? Oh well.. I need more data anyways. These numbers must be REALLY skewed. If someone has some suggestions of things to look at for leaks let me know.

I quote Maudie as mis-speaking and saying "Annie Duke is my Herp.".. lol. She meant Hero. I told her I had to smoke her typo so sorry Auntie. Watch that Enter key! She ended up being the Big Woman on Card Table. Eclypsing me in the last hand I stayed in for. Damn! I was the Big Man for most of the night! Oh well, if someone is going to knock me off my perch it might as well be her.

I have been collecting my thoughts about my "Poker Gods". I call upon them so often I figured I should build a whole religion around them. I will be finishing this post up sometime tomorrow and posting it. You will then know who to pray to in what situation. I should figure out what tribute they require... hmm...

Advice you will never get anywhere else…

Listen up you bloggers for I have found the true secret to success in Poker. What is it you say? Buy my book for 19.95.. oh wait, that comes later.. Starting Hand Selection? Bah. That is for amateurs. Post flop play? Ha! Like that really works. Chasing flushes until your opponents are afraid if any one suited card is on the board? Yeah right. The true secret to making money playing poker is – write an ode to the Poker Goddess! I swear she is doing naughty little things to me these last two days. I just had almost a 100BB night! That is the best night I have ever had. You might give credit to the SSHE book, which has taught me a lot of scary aggression type things that work. Perhaps my skills in poker have improved? I am here to tell you it is all for naught if you do not court your ladylove. So I expect to see some poems to the poker goddess from you slackers!!!!

How did I win you might ask. It was all in a short period of time. I spend about an hour playing. Every hand I was in on the first table paid off. I chased two flushes Ace high, caught them both, and one guy had a smaller flush. Very nice payoff! Doubled up on this table. +25BB.

I played a second table. I basically only caught one good hand but it was enough. I had 33 in late position and called it with a bunch of people in. The flop was JJx, people bet, I called the cheap bet. Next card is the 3! Sike! I had people raising me and paying me off to the river here. I ended up at $84 or 12.5BB or so. I cannot add. Ask BB the exact number! Heh.

Last thing I did tonight was to try a 22/2 tourney. I figured I was up by $100 or so, and I wanted to try some more tourney limit play. Round one was some good cards. Cheap round so I end up about $200. The next three rounds were nothing special. I caught a few cards and played well. The next round had the hand that made the tourney for me. I had 99 in the pocket and called a raised pot. The flop was a garbage 7-J-2. Now this is where I played perfectly. I knew for a fact somehow that the guy who raised had nothing but AK. I raised his initial bet to isolate. Everyone else folded. Sweet. Now it was me and the raiser and we were stuck together. Him hoping for his A or K, raising every hand, calling my raises. A Q on the turn is no help to him. Bet and raise again. The 4 on the river did not help him and he was out. I was now up to $3700 and chip leader by far. I cruised into the final three letting the aggressive player knock a few people out. I am chip leader by this time. The cards then start hitting me. I am playing less perfect cards because we are short handed. I play J-8, and get the J and 8 on the flop. Almost everything I played worked out perfectly. I knock the aggressive guy out first. The passive guy folds a lot of blinds against me. Finally after what seemed to be forever I knocked him out when my Q8 made two pair! Sweet!.

Sir ends up winning $100 from the tourney. I am up to $1027 from my $850 start of the night. One more night like this and I am moving up to the 2/4 tables. I am ready to start making some real mooooneeeyyy. The learning and failing of the past month will be erased and a newly triumphant Sir rises from the ashes like a Phoenix. Who knows what the next plateau of my game will hold?

FFL Changes and PT

The FFL Team is sickly. I was comparing my stats to the Drunk Bastards and I have a lot of work to do in order to beat Al. The problem is he has a freaking RB that gives him 50 points a game! Damn Priest Holmes! Lucky for me my competition this week has been sad. I think they barely broke 100 points each week. I am hoping this trend continues and I mop the floor with these guys. I put myself in a bad spot by having too many Patriot players on my team. So I had to do a lot of juggling this week. I got rid of the consistent dead beats except for one TE (T. Heap) that will do well if he gets healthy. I decided to keep him on for a week or two more. I ended up dropping P. Burress. I remember him killing the Pats as a receiver. I mean whenever you needed a catch he was the man. Apparently this is no longer the case. He was scoring me so few points that I had to get rid of him. I also dropped a kicker to pickup the Giants Defence. I had to do this because I had no D for this week. I picked up R. Caldwell for a WR. He is a sleeper pick. He has had two good weeks. Hope this continues. Bottom line he cannot be worse than 3 points. Here is the write-up about him:

Sep 20 For the second straight week, Chargers wideout Reche Caldwell was on the receiving end of a touchdown strike from Drew Brees, this time hauling in a 33-yard touchdown against the Jets. Caldwell, a former second round draft pick, now has eight catches, 132 yards, and two touchdowns on the season.
Views: Guess who is in his third season? Caldwell got a starting spot in week one thanks to Tim Dwight's hamstring injury, and he's making it difficult for Marty Schottenheimer to remove him. If for some horrible reason you need to use a Chargers wideout, Caldwell would be your guy.
Good enough for me. Like I said, he CANNOT be worse than the 3 points I have been getting in this spot. So if some of my moves work out then I might crack 150 this week. If I can consistently do this I might have a shot at Al when week 8 rolls around. Either that or I will have to put a Voodoo curse on Holmes!

That’s my FFL rambling for the week. Should get back to Poker soon. I have decided to purchase Poker Tracker. I know I have been slacking on getting something to check the leaks in my game, but to be honest I do not think I was at a point where that would have made much of a difference. I think my game has improved a lot in the last few weeks and now I want to start finding the holes. I am sure I will have a million questions about the program. My main problem with it when I was using the demo version was the fact that it is hard to tell what everything means. I see 25% of the flops? Is that bad? Is it good? I have a high aggression rating what does that mean? I lose a lot with AA.. Does that tell me I overplay AA or I am getting bad beats too often? Etc.. etc.. I have no clue so I will post some of my stats once I get 10,000 hands and ask for help.

Yes!

Boston Bullets vs 142.50 Final
CubanRefugees 123.00

-- Nuff Said

Welllll...

DrunkBastards 2-0-0 1.000 303.00 W-2 9 4
2 Boston Bullets 2-0-0 1.000 254.50 W-2 10 3

Apparently the Drunk Bastards play football trashed as well as they do Poker! Beware Al I am coming for you in week 8!

Ahh my Lady Love

I guess my lovely lady likes poetry because she was giving me decent cards all night long. Ahh sweet loving. I ended up $60 for the night. Not too bad for 1/2. Doubled up on one table and caught a nice hand on the other one right before I wanted to leave. I had 10-10, I raised, it was raised again. The flop was a sweeeet 8-10-5 rainbow! It never got better for the competition. 3BET on the Flop, 2BET on the turn by two guys, and called to the river by the last sucker! yeehaw! I made $25 on that hand alone and ended up $17 for that table. I will take it.

Ode to the Enchantress

Poker is like the most abusive relationship you could possibly have. One day she is kissing you and giving you that sweet loving. The next day she kicks you in the balls and leaves you in the gutter to die. She is so attractive that you cannot help but to come back to her. Her melodic voice and shapely curves draw you back into her sweet embrace. You never know which lady your going to get. “This time it is going to be different” you say. Convinced that everything is fine you open your heart to her again only to be crushed by her icy embrace. In the long term being with her is better than being alone. Why can’t she love me all the time?

Are you ready for Football!!

Not much going on in Poker this weekend. Had the Bankroll up to $880 or so and brought it back down to $795 or so. Caused mostly by some REALLY bad beats. Ok, they were not that bad, but I will never get over people who stay in with K2 against a capped pre-flop. I know that any hand COULD win, but how do you feel good about that hand? Hope you choke on my dollar! I still feel fine about my game. I am going to get some good time in tonight while watching Monday Night Football!

My FFL team so far has the best score in the league for the week. My opponent the Cuban Refugees needs to score an additional 75 points to catch me tonight. It is possible since his team is loaded with Philly and Minnesota players. Here is how I think it will go down:

D. McNabb:    30 points.

M. Robinson:  10 points

B. Westbrook  10 points

D. Akers:     7 points

So that would get the Cubans an additional 57 points and I would still win. Even if D. McNabb has an outstanding night like he did last week I could still win. I feel like I am in good shape to hold on with my 142 points. We will have to wait and see though. The great part about my team is that there is still a lot of room for improvement. I brought the team up 30 points this week and I still have a few deadbeats. Next week is a challenge though. No Patriots. I need to trade someone to get a Defence if I want those points because the Pats are my only D. I also have 2-3 other Patriot players. We will see.

Pauly liked my last post about Chucky Cheese. Very High Praise coming from Pauly. Heh. I am truly honored. Heck, I am surprised he even reads this drivel.

Slow Weekend

I got a good session in the other day. Played for an hour or so and doubled up on one table, and ended up a little ahead on the other one for a net profit of a little of $60.

I have made massive changes to my FFL team. I think I made 4 pickups this week. I hope it will help. I had too many guys with .50 points. I read up on them and figured I would make some changes. I picked up some WRs and RBs that should help out. All of them are backup types but they cannot be worse than what I had. I also have A. Feeley this week as my QB. I know there is alot of trouble on Miami and anyone could be the QB week to week, but I think he will have a good day. We will see.

I was at Chucky Cheese this weekend having some fun with the kids. It was a good time. On the bathroom break (which I hate in public places) I was thinking a bit. The recomendation for playing 1/2 is 300xBB or $600. If you are playing two tables does this effect things? Should you have more like $950? If you have a really really bad night your blowing through about 20% of your Bankroll which seems like alot. Just thinking about these things as I approach the next level. Another $400 or so and I will be ready for 2/4. I am very excited for this. I will be back to where I was before dollar wise. As far as my game and maturity and discipline I think I am way ahead of where I was. Reading some of my posts last time I was at 1/2 was pretty funny. I was always up/down/tilt/up/down/tilt/tilt/tilt. I hardly ever go on a bankroll tilt now, and when I do I have yet to jump up a level to try and win it back. I never played the ten sided games. I love them now. I would never reccomend playing in a six sided game anymore. Not enough money. My aggresion levels have gone through the roof lately at least for me.

Poker is funny. At every stage your at you think you know everything and have nothing to improve on and then a light goes off and illuminates some part of your game that was REALLY bad. It really stands out when you see people making your old mistakes. One guy at a .50/1 table I was slumming at always complained when people made raises pre-flop. Now some of the pre-flop raises were questionable but he just goes off on a guy for raising in late position with 88 and hitting his set. In the loose game we were in this was the correct move. "How could you raise with 88!" he cries. Well, why do I want all of the K2's and Q3's that could beat my hand to stay in? If I happen to flop a set I am going to make a ton of money most of the time. So why would you not raise? I can not even image how my game is going to change in a years time. It is going to be interesting.

Maudie and Ani and big swings..

I had a nice night. Had fun playing with Maudie and Anisotropy. I think I saved their nights basically giving them alot of my cash! lol. Oh well. I lost at the .50/1 and won at the ½. Doubled up on a .50/1 table too. I was up to $775 and then some two interesting hands sunk me. I was playing short handed and I had the J7 of spades. I limped in and flopped a Flush. I bet it and was bet up. After about ten bucks I lose to Q high flush! Damn!

I then decide to try and win some back. So I go and play a 25NL. It was good because it reminded me why I hate NL sometimes. I get 33 and play it. I flop the set and see a flush draw. I raise it by the pot, I get raised a little, and then the 3rd guy goes all in. I call and the guy after me calls. So its like $75 in the pot. Nice. No flush happens! Sike! I won right? Bahhh! The freaking 8’s flopped a set too.. and it wasn’t even the guy who raised all in! Jackass! I hate NL! Of course I finished in an SNG by getting one hand. It was a pair of 4’s that made a set on the turn. I took two peoples entire stacks and glided into 3rd. I made one mistake when down to the last three. I was chip dog. The flop had a K and I had A-10 suited. I had a flush draw. So I called a huge hand and lost to a pair of K’s. Damn! I hate NL! Heh.

I made a nice hand back in ½. I have a pair of 3’s again! Freaking 88 on the flop! Wassup with that? Grrr. I should not have played the 3’s anyway. Instead of going on tilt I am going to try and grab one more good hand and call it a night.

In answer to some questions from JW:

How many times a week do you play and for how long?

It depends but I like to play 3-5 days for 3-5 hours.

How many tables?

Right now I two table. I could three table, but I get flustered sometimes and then I lose bad.

How long have you been at your current limit?

I have been at ½ for a week or so. I played .50/1 for 2-3 weeks until I got up to $600.

As far as variance goes. I have seen some but not as much as some people. I do not think I have played long enough, and it is something I need to learn to deal with.

My question to Bloggers about the stake to start with got a good response all around the Blogsphere. A lot of good articles and advice. The main reason I asked the question is because of SSHE. It seems like if you bet your flushes for maximum value, and you miss 4-5 because of variance you can quickly be out 25BB. If you hit above average on the other hand you can be WAYYYYYY up.

Ok. I am done for the night. I am up six bucks. I was up fifty bucks at one point. Bah!

Keep Dreaming

"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

- Mark 11:23

I have got to tell you I am fed up with the lack of support from people. I REALLY get a little irritated when anyone I talk to does not think you can win money consistently playing Poker. I was on pace to make about 1K per month playing .50/1. I would assume that with better post flop play and the level I have moved up to (1/2) that it would be reasonable to say I could make 2K per month. I might be off a little but I do not think this is a crazy statement. This rate adds up to around 24K per year. Obviously there will be some variance but I do not think this is an unreasonable expectation. It may actually be an underestimation.

I tell my Wife this and she looks at me like I am crazy. I must have like three heads. She cannot wait to tell the nanny and the two of those knuckleheads together like to give me the “Uh Huh” smirk.

Now I understand a little of why they do not believe. I have not been playing very long. I have had my setbacks on the path, which have actually made me a much better player. I know they have no firm grasp of any aspect of the Poker world and this causes them to have no way of believing that anyone can make money doing this. I would at least expect a little encouragement from the wifey though.

Do not even get me started about when I talk to people at work. The friends I have from work defiantly think I am crazy also. It is again based in their assumption that Poker is only luck and lack of knowing how many people are out there playing online and in casinos.

I cannot wait until that mountain moves and the doubt is lifted. As I ascend triumphantly into the Heavens of a profitable poker game leaving behind the unbelievers. I wonder who will be smirking then!

Hey, I'm a believer..

I never believed.. I trust you Bloggers but I could not bring myself to accept it. It must be an inside joke. No way. A coincidence? The mind playing tricks on you. I am here to say that I am wrong. Totally and completely wrong. If the WSOP is on the fish are out in record numbers! Worse fish than me!!!?!?!?! I get dealt KQ. The flop is 6-8-K rainbow. I figure someone might be on a straight draw. So I decide to raise the bet that was made. I get a few folds like I wanted. Two guys stay in with me. Now I wonder if someone flopped a set? I check-call to the river. My hand is K high with a Q kicker. What did I get called to the river with? A pair of 6's!!!! Sweeet. Of course there is the other side of this. I raise my AK. Bet it down the river and get rivered by J-10 when the guy gets two pair. The average pot on this table is 30-40$. I have not gotten many cards. I am not up by much YET. I still love this table!!!! Go WSOP! Please play more re-runs!!!!!?!?!?!?!

Question for the Brainiacs

I have yet to see this question discussed in either a book or a Blog. At least as far as my feeble old mind can remember, but here it is. When playing at a limit how many BB do you bring to the table? Normally for me I use Empire Pokers default. I buy in for $50 on the 1/2 table or 25BB. If I bust out I will usually switch tables. The reason I am interested in what other people do is with all this talk of being aggressive and playing hands to the max is 25BB enough to ride out the variance of missing your flush when betting into it down to the river and not making it? Should 25BB cover your needs? Just wondering. At this point I have never been in the position of needing more. I usually will either bust out or win alot. I have yet to not be able to bet a hand the way I want because of funds. I am assuming 25BB is fine but it is always good to get other feedback.

Slow Night

The ebb and flow of my game seems to have changed. I noticed that I had been playing a really loose game. Not paying attention to position as much as I should. Playing marginal hands like K9 and getting angry when trumped by KQ. I had let myself play down to the level of my competition at Party. Since I started reading SSHE I decided I would re-commit myself to good pre-flop play, which sets up good post-flop play.

When I was playing marginal hands the average night would look like a stock report. I would lose a little, win some, hit some monster hands, go down some more, and either end up or down for the night depending on my opponents and how many of my cards hit. I was a rattlesnake striking blindly and often at my opponents. I was a serious Action Jackson probably seeing 60% of the flops. Basically any two cards over 18, any high flush draw cards any position.

Since I have tightened up the game is a little slower. The other night I probably folded the majority of my hands for the first fifteen minutes. Television helps a lot during these periods, as does two tabling. I do not think I got a hand worth playing in that time. The J-10o in early position tempted me, and also the KJo! I held my ground and waited for the right position to play these hands. I was the lion stalking its prey slowly, patiently, waiting until the time to strike was right. Finally after about a half an hour I started getting a bunch of playable hands. Since the hands were of better quality than I usually played I won more often. After this I had shorter periods of waiting. While there was still some fluctuation my stack seemed to mostly grow, level off, and grow some more. I am a lot happier with my play lately. I am glad I got back to fundamentals and think it will pay off.

I was down for last nights session. Only by 3-4BB though so it was not a bad night. I had some of my biggest payoff hands to double up on one table. I busted out of the other one. ouch. The final insult on that table was when I raised A-10, had one caller, flopped the straight to the 10, and was beaten by some J-7o bastard! Oh well. The best two hands of the night were monsters. I made $42 when I flopped a set of tens. The book says raise up those tens son, so I raised pre-flop, I was called, and three of us saw the flop. I flopped the set of 10's, with the only scare card being a king. Even on Party I could not see someone slow playing there KK that bad. If I was wrong so be it, but I am assuming I was the NUT set. I bet out, it is raised, and capped. I beleive it was capped all the way to the river. When everyone showed I had beaten top two pair and a pair of 2's. All I can think with the 2's was that he was trying to flop the set and beat what he saw as two people with two pair. I dunno. Sometimes party is wacky. The second win was $32 or so. I was dealt AKs and I was able to cap it pre-flop. Nice! The flop was a beautiful pair of hearts. Sweet. Betting was intense here and the turn was no help to me. At this point I have overcards that could *maybe* win this for me and the NUT flush draw with no pair on the board. I call the bet and pray for my heart on the river. BAM! Baby! Oh Yeah! The betting slows down now but the damage has been done. Nice hand! phhhhweeeeehhhhhwwwww.

Oh Sweet 1/2...

I played some 1/2 for the second night in a row. I was two tabling. For the second night I have almost trippled my initial buyin. The second table I was on I almost broke even. So I am up $80 for the night and topping $700, and will be at $750 once my VIP bonus kicks in within the next 72 hours. Sweeeeeeet! I think 1/2 is much better than .50/1 especially when you start a run. People seem to respect your raises more, and you can win with out making your draw sometimes. I also ran into many calling stations. Here is my best hand of the night. I am not sure what these guys were thinking. Especially the one who showed. Oh wait I just noticed he had a smaller set. Nicccceeee. Oh wait. Not he did not. He gave me 12 bucks on a pair of sevens with a K kicker. I love this guy! The other guy probably had two pair:

************************************************************************************
UPDATE: I almost forgot to tell you why I was playing tonight instead of taking a few days off. My wife was pissing me off so bad I could not stand it. So instead of getting really nasty with her I decided to go downstairs and blow off some steam. Almost makes up for being a bitch!
************************************************************************************

***** Hand History for Game 948429204 *****
1/2 TexasHTGameTable (Limit) - Tue Sep 14 23:10:30 EDT 2004
Table Table 12008 (Real Money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: yumizu ( $49)
Seat 2: issues99 ( $20.25)
Seat 3: golfernut ( $7.75)
Seat 4: badgamblers ( $130.75)
Seat 5: SirFWALGMan ( $90)
Seat 6: irishpride2 ( $65.50)
Seat 7: chilicheese ( $28)
Seat 8: ElevenHotel ( $62.75)
Seat 9: flush4ME ( $50)
Seat 10: mostprolific ( $100.87)
irishpride2 posts small blind (0.50)
chilicheese posts big blind (1)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ 7d, 7s ]
ElevenHotel folds.
flush4ME folds.
mostprolific calls (1)
yumizu calls (1)
issues99 calls (1)
golfernut folds.
badgamblers calls (1)
SirFWALGMan calls (1)
irishpride2 folds.
chilicheese checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 9s, 7h, Ad ]
chilicheese checks.
mostprolific bets (1)
yumizu folds.
issues99 folds.
badgamblers calls (1)
SirFWALGMan calls (1)
chilicheese folds.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 3c ]
mostprolific bets (2)
badgamblers calls (2)
SirFWALGMan raises (4) to 4
mostprolific calls (2)
badgamblers raises (4) to 6
SirFWALGMan raises (4) to 8
mostprolific calls (4)
badgamblers calls (2)
** Dealing River ** : [ 8d ]
mostprolific checks.
badgamblers bets (2)
SirFWALGMan calls (2)
mostprolific calls (2)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $38.50 | Rake: $1
Board: [ 9s 7h Ad 3c 8d ]
yumizu balance $48, lost $1 (folded)
issues99 balance $19.25, lost $1 (folded)
golfernut balance $7.75, didn't bet (folded)
badgamblers balance $118.75, lost $12 [ 7c Kh ] [ a pair of sevens -- Ad,Kh,9s,7c,7h ]
SirFWALGMan balance $116.50, bet $12, collected $38.50, net +$26.50 [ 7d 7s ] [ three of a kind, sevens -- Ad,9s,7d,7s,7h ]
irishpride2 balance $65, lost $0.50 (folded)
chilicheese balance $27, lost $1 (folded)
ElevenHotel balance $62.75, didn't bet (folded)
flush4ME balance $50, didn't bet (folded)
mostprolific balance $88.87, lost $12 [ As 9d ] [ two pairs, aces and nines -- As,Ad,9d,9s,8d ]

Comments

I wanted to address some of the excellent replies to my last post.

Chris Halverson mentioned that you make all of your money in Poker post-flop. Pre-flop is very easy to play. I agree. It is the main reason I bought SSHE because after the flop I think I play conservative, read: weak-ass-leaving-lots-o-money-on-the-tables. My natural tendency is to bet a sure hand and check-call-fold the marginal ones. I beleive the right play is to count your outs, check the pot, and if you have enough outs and the pot odds are right then bet the hell out of your hand so the times you make the hand you take the maximum value. The reason for this is because once everyone see's that there is a flush on the board it is fold city. So if you do not make your money up front forgetaboutit. This is just my opinion so far. Anyway I assume SSHE will help me to better understand the correct play and why. I hope that by being less in the dark I can win even more. Right now I would say I tend to be a winning player in a site full of the worst players known to man. It is something but not what I want to be known for. I cannot tell you how many K2o's I saw last night. Anyway I should have plenty of time to read the next two days while I take a Poker hiatus.

One huge advantage you have in an online game is you can use the PC to automatically calculate your pot odds, outs, etc.. to the cent. Not sure what software out there does this, but it would be kewl to have a simple app with a couple of boxes where you can type in your hand (qd,10d) the number of opponents (4), the size of the pot (10$), the cards out already (js,8h,4d) and have it figure out what kind of odds your getting on the play. Of course if you do this you will never learn to do it in your head quickly so your live play would be effected. Is this cheating?

My Syntax is Taxing. Sorry guys. I am better at the other aspects of English like comprehension and creativity. Spelling and Grammer just get in the way. I will try to be better though.

Bad Night.. Good Night..

I have been running bad for a few days. It has not been fun. I decided to try and play with SSHE's hand suggestions for raising and calling, etc.. I figured it would be a good way to start using the book. I am not sure what happened but the tighter I played the more I got rivered. It was BAD. A high flush rivered by a boat. You get the idea. I was gonna throw the book out the window (in an irrational moment). I really need to read more about the post flop play though. I need to finish the whole book. I think it will really help my game.

I ended up trippling up to $150 on a 1/2 table. It just happened to be paying me off left and right. None of the other tables I played did as well. Not sure why. I busted out on a couple of .50/1 and 1/2 tables also. It was not fun. I am back down to $626. Oh well.

On the good side I was given 1500 VIP points and I am now a member of Empire Poker's VIP club. I used some of my chips to buy $50 cash into my account. So I should be up to $675. It should show up in the next few days. I may use the rest to buy another $50 chip next week. I like having some points in my account though. So Empire is basically going to give me $50 a month for playing on there site. Not bad! You know you play too much poker when the company invites you into there VIP club. On the end I am going to try and cut down a bit. Since I have been running bad I seem to want to play more so I can run worse. I also have been trying to get the bankroll to a decent number. I really want to play 2/4 10 sided since I can hardly ever find a 1/2 10 sided table on Empire. I think a few days off would be good. Finish the SSHE book and then hit the tables with a better idea of how to make huge sums.

The "Boston Bullets" FFL team came through. Jake Dellorme gave me enough points to win my first ever FFL game. I am going up against the Cubans next week. There team scored 150 points in contrast to my teams 130. So I hope I can improve next week. I had several players with .50 points so something needs to be done. I did switch my WR and picked up Patten of the Pats. He is Brady's favorite long pass guy, and scores alot of TDs so I hope to make some points there.

Small Stakes Holdem

I have been reading the book Small Stakes Holdem. It seems to be a good book. I will not know until I try to apply some of the concepts in the book to my play. Here are some initial thoughts though.

The first chapter tries to get you to buy into the long term idea. It spouts huge e=mc2 type formula’s to get you on its side. Obviously this is Slansky inspired and I would suggest skipping this altogether if you buy into the long term idea already. It bored the hell out of me. If I was a math genius like Bad Blood (See Stat King) I would probably have liked it.

The pre-flop suggestions were both more aggressive and tighter than what I usually play. This tells me a few things. First off I am probably too loose. I know this already. It is in part why I sometimes take huge swings. I am also not aggressive enough with certain hands. I am going to try playing tighter as the book says. It also tells me that you can play relatively crappy hands and still win at Small Stakes Holdem. I would assume as you transcend the levels the “small mistakes” you make will come back to bite you in the ass more and more.

I read some of the post-flop play portion. This is where it says I am playing as wrong as can be. Here is one quick example. I would never have played this in the manor described:

Dealt Qh7h in late position.

The Flop comes Ks 7d 2h.

A single bet comes around to you. Multiple people are in the pot. You call. What two mistakes have you made?

I would probably choose to fold. However the books says the two mistakes are the obvious one of playing a crappy hand pre-flop, and not RAISING! The rational around this is that you have so many outs that do not help other people’s hands that it makes sense. You can possibly win by getting a Q (3 outs), a 7 (2 outs) and a backdoor flush (10 outs). When you run the computer generate calculations I guess this pays off in the long run. I have not gotten to the part where you play the turn so I cannot comment on the next stage of play. I can see how bumping the pot up when people are hanging on could be of value. The whole concept of playing that aggressively is so far from my game that it seems crazy. However I am willing to give it a shot.

The thing I have taken out of the book so far is it is the very little mistakes that you make 100 times a session that kill you long term. I.E. Playing K9o and things like that. The book suggests very restrictive calling hands when you are off suite, and more liberal ones when you are suited. I will keep you posted on my success using these concepts. The books says you make most of your money post-flop and so I need to finish those sections first in order to apply these concepts.

The weekend was a losing one and I have dropped down below $700 again. I am not too concerned about this right now. I could have stopped on Sunday being just over $700 but kept playing. One table really set me off. Two people would play any two cards and the amount of times they made there hands really got me going. I know this is not the way to play and I should have just left. It gets really bad when your KK capped pre-flop gets cracked by 10-4. I actually would have lost the hand to AA, but the fact that 10-4s was in the pot and won with two pair on the river really set me off. Oh well. Something else to work on.

On the FFL front I am behind my competition with Monday Nights game being my only chance to win this week. I have the QB for Carolina tonight and in our league the QB’s have been scoring anywhere between 17-40 points. So if Jakey has a good night with no interceptions I will be in the money. If not then I start the season with a loss. It is only week one and I am making roster changes already. I must win!

Omahwahhhhh?

Dammmmnnn! Omaha is a freaking crazy ass game! Average pot size at .50/1 at my table is 10-20 dollars. People are raising at the river with two pair. I know nothing about Omaha but I know this is wrong. I did notice that it was not always true that a straight, flush, or boat was the winner. I am not going to let my inexperience make me think anything less than these hands are worth playing, but I have noted it.

If you are a scared player this game is definitely a nice cure. I notice nobody plays pre-flop correctly. I hardly ever saw a raise. I was told you hit AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK as well as TT, 99, AQ, and QK pre flop. The first grouping you hit as much pre-flop as the table will allow you to. I made a few small mistakes. I had the nut straight and did not bet it because I could not figure out how to make it. Bah! I am an idiot. I know I only get to use two cards, so I kept combining the wrong cards and missed the fact I should have bet the river with my straight to the 6. I did take the five-buck pot when nobody bet. I probably would have folded it.

Oops. I just made a second mistake. I had 8’s, tripped on the flop, bet it as high as I could, and got beat by someone who rivered a straight. The mistake was betting the river. The straight did not call me though. So it did not cost me this time. I need to really look at my hands when I play.

The nice thing about tonight was on the first few hands I was up like 15 bucks. It made me feel more comfortable. The one thing I need more information on is what makes a good flop. Do you chase anything in Omaha? Do you try and make your 9 for the straight or just fold if the flop misses. I am leaning towards folding right now.

So far I think the idea of Omaha is to make the best hand, ram and jam it until you do not have the best hand, and rake in the huge pot when the 6 other possible straights and flushes miss, or the lower boat (straight,flush) thinks it beats your nuts boat (straight,flush).

I am now back down to $33. It was nice being at $45+. I missed some good hands. Like AA dealt to me, but the 3rd A made a flush. I KNEW I needed to fold that and I paid an extra buck off. Not too bad to see a $15 pot. I have a feeling everyone at this table is too passive including myself. I am not sure though.

Houses are hard to figure out. I have 5569 in my hand. I flop the trips? I get 10-5-6. I think that is trip 5’s. Yes it is. I thought for a second it was a house and be it. I got a ten on the river and won with this five over ten house, which is a bad call too because someone could have had something better.

I folded a nice pot where I had the straight to the ace because 3 tens were on the board and I figure that someone had the A or J. Now if you have played Omaha you know I screwed up. You MUST use 2 cards from your hand. So unless someone had AA or JJ my straight would have held up. I can see why having a pair in your hand can help sometimes.

I bet up a lower straight with 8Q. I missed the fact that KQ could beat me because I had QQ8 in my hand. This might have been an ok bet. It was a good bet for Hold Em, but with so many cards out there you never know. Guess what hand I tied with? Yup. Q8 in his hand. This may give Maudies conspiracy theory a little weight.

Missed an A high flush draw. I then made almost the same one. It was raised up on the flop by the straight. I called because I had two pair and four to an Ace high flush draw. Small pot of $10. I am back to $38 again.

Wasted a buck on a straight I did not see. Damn! Oh well. Omaha requires A LOT more concentration than Holdem does. A LOT! Sox are winning in the 8th. I have one more inning to play Poker. NY is tanking. The world is topsy turvey.

Another weird hand. I think I probably should have folded, but I won. I was dealt AAA6. I think trips are bad in your hand. The flop was Axx, and I got a six on the turn. It looks like a boat, right? Nope. It is trip Aces still. Lucky for me no straight or flush materialized until the river, and the straight was not made by anyone. So high trips won a hand.

Made a big mistake at the end. Flopped the (probable) high straight. Bet it up. Got called. Beat by a house and four of a kind on the river. Was being a fish and calling it at the river when I was pretty sure I was beat.

Well after playing for a few hours I finally busted out. Oh well. I had a good time. I need to get a better idea of how to play post-flop. Are two pair good? Do you try and make your boat that way, or do you really need trips or better to continue on? I guess I will learn as I go. At least I doubled up 3 times in NLHE, so I am actually ahead of where I started the night. I am going to keep trying Omaha and try and get a feel for the game. I do not think my first dip into the game was particularly bad but I cannot judge.

Nice HE pot of the night. I played “The Hammer” suited diamonds on a whim. It got raised after I bet, so I call. The flop is a friendly two diamond flop. It also has a seven. I get five to six betters. I call. The turn is a diamond. I check. Couple of folders. One guy calls. Two others come along. The better goes again. Two folders. I call. He turns over 96o with one diamond, the six. HELLLO! What the hell was he thinking. Even if he made the flush he was beaten. What a marooooon. I was playing it just to say “Go Hammer!”. I never expected to be the high flush. Apparently the Poker Gods approved because I have just gone on a run and brought my stack up to $83 from the original $25. Not bad for .50/1. I had some excellent flops and everything I played worked. It was a good feeling.

Felicia Lee

Felicia Lee is like the Princess Diana of Poker Bloggers. She is the conscientious Poker professional who is involved in the society of Poker. She tries to help people and places avoid the landminds of Poker. Truly trying to improve the landscape and texture of the world. Her reviews of different gaming establishments are excellent.

She hobnobs with the elite of the game. If you know a Poker personality chances are she has met them or played in games they have been in. Probably knocked them out once or twice? I bet she has some great stories!

Almost every Poker Blog out there has a little comment with Felicia giving some good advice, or encouraging a player.

You can tell she loves the game of Poker. Not just Holdem, Razz or Stud but all of the aspects of the games. She is probably equally as good at Omaha or Stud or any variant of Poker game that you might have never heard of.

So in the spirit of her excellence and well-rounded experience I have decided to try some different Poker games. Unlike Felicia I do have a passion for Holdem. I think that getting more exposure to other games would be interesting and help my Holdem skills also. So I will keep people informed, but I want to start playing a game or so of .50/.1 Omaha every week. I hear these games are very juicy at Empire/Party and the stakes are right for learning.

So thanks for everything and do not drive too fast! Hopefully I will soon know what rolled up K’s are and how many cards I can use from my hand. Keep up the good work.

It's all Luck

Had a nice night. Doubled up on three tables and busted out on one. The one I busted out on just was crewl. Flop a straight and get beat by a flush. You know the routine. So I was back over $700 for a few minutes until making a huge mistake. There is a little voice inside me that says "STOP! YOU KNOW YOUR FREAKING BEAT DUMMY!". I was dealt JJ and raised. It was capped. The flop was 8-9-10. Three people in. Nobody bet it up. So I hit it. Everyone called. Some junk on the turn. Single bet again. It was then that the disaster part happened. I got a J on the river. I knew immediatly I was beaten. I figured one guy on AQ. Not sure about the other guy. However like a fish I end up calling the capped pot with the 3rd best hand. Beaten by KQ and Q2. At least Q2 got beaten too. Yes I am vindictive. I would have been at $55 or so, instead I ended up around $44. Oh well. One of these days I will learn. Capping means something, even in low limit.

At least I still ended up almost doubled up. The pot I doubled up on was questionable to. It was with Q2 guy. He is on my buddy list now. I had AK and I made sure it was capped pre-flop. There were like 7 people seeing this flop. The flop was AA/KK. I thought that Q3 might have AA or KK. I bet into the pot to see. He raised me. Everyone else folded except for one guy. I check / called to the river because I was damn well going to see the AA or KK when the pot was $25 and I had the 3rd A and K and everyone besides Q3 was check/calling. It turns out the moron who was betting to the river and at the river has Q8 of spades. A diamond flush draw was on the board so I asked him "Did you think those were diamonds?" his reply "It is all luck". Yup. For some people it is.

Yep.. Yep.. Yep..

I was in the zone playing a crazy player. I think these people drive me crazy. Any straight or flush draw no matter how small they will raise pre-flop, and bet it up even though they have nothing. It really steams me because I am a careful player and I see these guys go on huge swings upwards. I can not make myself beleive they always win, but with a weak table that folds to anything scary they can do very well.

I got AK s000ted on the Button. I decide I am going to ram and jam it and hope for the best. Sometimes this works and other times I am screwed. The pot ends up getting capped pre-flop by three players. It is me, yep, and pat. The flop is J-4-2. Pat waits and then bets. I put pat on AK like me, or maybe AQ, as she missed the flop. I raise her bet. Yep calls. A 7 falls on the turn. Pat checks confirming my suspicions. I bet immediatly. Yep Raises me! Pat folds and I raise yep. He calls. I know for a fact by how yep has been playing that he is on the A-5 straight draw. He has A-3, and I have AK. I pop it one last time at the river when a 10 comes out and he calls. The pot tops off at about twenty bucks. I was SURE I read him wrong until the chips slid over to my side of the table. He said "You got me that time". Yep!

Back in the Saddle

It feels good to be back to a stable level of Poker funds. I feel great about my game. I know it needs work and I feel like I am getting better every day. I know this sounds crazy but I am VERY happy I broke out to zero. If I did not experience the total loss of bankroll I do not think I would have ever curbed my bad habits. I may not be cured, but that gave me a new perspective. It also took my disdain of larger tables away. I now will play as comfortably at a ten handed table as I would at six. If I did not drop back and start playing lower limits I would never have done this. The first time I started my climb I started with 1/2. I always wanted to jump up two levels to stay in the six handed games. I really lost alot of money doing that. I can see where experience helps a player in Poker and am anticiplating many more doors opening in the future.

I went ahead and bought the Small Stakes Holdem Book off of Sloejacks site. I am going to take the funds out of the Poker bankroll. It will be nice to read something new. I hope to share my thoughts on the book when I finish it.

I am going to offer a Bad Beat Bounty in honor of all of the bad beats that I have been reading about from all of the Bloggers around. I like whining and I am willing to reward it. I am only playing .50/1 and ½ so it is going to be tiny. So here it is, whoever sends me the BEST bad beat story by September 30th, 2004 will receive $25 from my account. Take a shot at it. Please send the hand history. Best is a subjective word so it can be a huge pot lost, or just a really nutty 3-inner straight draw to beat your AA. If you're on Empire we can find a private table and I will bet the $25 and fold it to you. If not then we will figure something else out.

I have been receiving a lot of links from From the Cheap Seats. I figured I would return the favor. I really like the site. In addition there is a good site called Damning The River, I think it is from a Harvard guy.. at least it is hosted on there servers. Derek responded to my post on his site looking for a home game in Cambridge. I might give it a shot. Not sure if I am ready to play live with my “OMG!LOOKWHATIGOT!” Poker face.

If your married there is a nice article about the "Poker Widow" at Poker and Devotion. It is a good read. Not sure if it is helpful to the married folks out there but brings up a few good points. Good Luck and Good Playing!

One last thought, guess what Google search brought people to my site: Why I can’t consistently win at online poker! What does that say about my site! Arg!

Foosball and Poker

I have started playing the ½ tables. Have had three sessions. I am still only playing one table at a time. I have had three successful sessions. I am happy with that. I play a little tighter on these tables and chase a lot less. The last table I played the cards kept smacking me in the face! All my AK’s hit, KK survived with some scary things on the board. It was just a nice night. I only played an hour of ½ and ended up 12BB. Not bad. Once my Bankroll gets up to 750+ I will play ½ exclusively, but for now I am switching from .50/1 to ½. One refreshing thing about ½ is people will actually fold to a pre-flop raise! Wow! What a concept!

I put together my Fantasy Foosball Team. I am not sure it is a good team but it is MY team! Go team! Once the draft got past the 8th round I was lost and just took Yahoo! Suggestions. It is bad when you do not know the players on your team. I will have to do a lot of research. The other bloggers ragged on me for taking the first kicker (vanderjack). I guess you are not supposed to take a kicker until the end. I did get the one pick I really wanted: Patriots Defence! If any D is going to score me points every week it is them. My main RB is Edgerrin James. I am going up against the Psychotic Smurfs. I do not think this is a bloggers team. Not sure. I will keep you posted. Hope I do well.

Any two S000ted

I think I give people the impression that I play any flush draw and this is not true. On some days I will play them a little liberal but my basic strategy is as follows.

I judge my s00ted calls by position and possibility to make other hands. I will play a flush draw with a high card in most positions as long as it has a A,K,Q,J with it. If it is raised before it gets to me I will usually call it with AK but fold it with the others. I kind of depends on feeling which is probably bad, but I never said I was perfect.

If I have a lower flush I almost never play it unless I am the SB or BB or sometimes the button. I do not like being raised with these small flushes and I have been beaten by A high flush against my K high to not want to play really small cards.

Once the flop happens everything depends on how many callers I have. If I make four to my flush I am usually playing it until then end. I am betting it every round for sure. I am not raising it until I make the flush, but I am making sure I get money each round. The reason for this is because once I make the flush people will start slowing down the betting.

If I am three to a flush I want to have 4-5 people in the pot to continue. I also do not want to see the pots being raised to a buck or two each turn. I will fold this instantly. If I miss my flush on the turn or river I am out. If I only have one called left by the turn it depends on that ugly feeling thing again. but I will check or fold it.

So that is my basic s000ted play, probably a little loose, but it works out for me.

Bad Beat of the Day

I am in a 5/1 tourney. I am doing REALLY well. I have $2700 and there are only four people left. I have KK. The guy before me bets 100, the next guy calls, I raise the small stack all in with my KK. He folds and it is looking good until the big stack calls me. The flop is 3 diamonds and a straight draw. I have high pair and four to a flush.. unfortionatly he had the straight. See ya later Sir! I folded to him before with a straight all in. If I had called that we would have split. It is hard to call someone when they go all in with $3000! Oh Well. I should have folded into the money and called it a day.

Ok. I cannot stop laughing. I just got beat bad! Not alot of money. Someone was drawing with a 2 of diamonds for 4 cards to a flush and beat my Straight! I can see going for a flush. I love the s0000ted, but the lowest possible card to the flush, any other diamond beats you, and you have to call two of my bets to get there! Wow! That is a new low for flush chaser! Im laughing so hard I am going to cry.

I got a couple more. Two on the same table. Twice I have AA and I bet it hard. Both times I am beaten by a set. One was capped pre-flop, AA vs 10's, and he gets his set. I should have slowed down the betting but I put him on KK and did not think. Very stupid. The other one was killed by 44. I did slow down a little on this one. It was raised pre-flop, the flop missed the 4's, I bet out, and he gets his third four on the turn. Man! It is bad beat night for me.

Almost there..

I am almost ready to dive back into the 1/2 tables. I want to wait until my stack is up to $600. I tried a table tonight for the fun of it. It has been a while since I played 1/2. I played for like 15 minutes and ended up $5. Good for dipping a toe in. I was also up slightly at .50/1. I was two tabling and made 15BB and 5BB. Not too bad. My plan is as follows:

1. Get the bankroll up to $600 by playing .50/1 two tables.
2. Play a combination of .50/1 two table, and 1/2 single table until well over $600,
probably $700 or $800.
3. Start two tabling 1/2.

I am excited to make it back up to $1200. I have a long ways to go, but I think I have learned ALOT from busting out. I do not claim to have everything under control. It will always be a learning process and struggle with discipline. Some of the things I think make this run better are:

1. I know I can bust out and do not go up levels when I lose.
2. I have started playing on a time limit instead of winnings or making back losing sessions. I have to keep working on this, but I am getting there.
3. I play 10 person table games almost always now. Last time I made my $1200 I stuck to 6 handed games because I thought they would be easier and more profitable. I was wrong.

I will keep learning more and hope to start making the Poker actually pay off!

Congrats and other things too.

And I will continue playing online.
Nothing better than sitting in front of the monitor in a sports bra and shorts, losing money.:)

- Stripper By Night

Much better picture than me in my tightie whities and beer belly. And she doesn't have a picture online! Damn! It is fun to read her. I have missed her Blog this past week.Congrats on going pro. No not hooker, professional poker player! Damn readers and there dirty minds! She is definitely living a dream many of us have. I have to save up $360K in my Poker account before I am allowed to go full-time by my wife. I figure I might make it by the time I am fifty. I enjoy it part time anyways. The nice thing about full-time would be the fact it would not take up my whole night. I would put in the daily grind and call it a day. I hope by the time I can save up $360K I have developed enough discipline and skill to actually do well as a professional player. I would not have to worry about the future of IT. Is all future work destined to go to 3rd world countries? Twenty cents for an Indian, fifteen for a Chinese programmer? At least when their in the US they have somewhat comparable expenses as I do. It is kind of funny how people do not think much of outsourcing jobs when it is auto workers in the heartland of America but when it becomes high level white collar jobs everyone is up in arms. So I am done with my ranting for tonight. I have hit Professional Poker. Strippers. Hookers. Wives. Outsourcing and Auto workers. Not bad for a short post. Probably pissed off everyone while I was at it too!

I would also like to thank Felicia for her comment. She says something like I am destined to become a world class Poker player. Ha! I am quoting with rosey glasses. Read her comment on my last post for the real quote. Who does not have the final table WSOP dream though? I will post mine in the future. It varies between being humble and awed to be playing with the greats to tricking one of the masters and knocking his ass out of the tourney and laughing at his play. Not sure which guy I will be, but I think I tend to the later. A better loser than winner.

“I think you've been afraid all your life”
- Decimus Meridius (Gladiator)

I have a good question for you players out there:

“Why am I so afraid?”

I always think that any flop that shows 48 would make a straight whoever bets has the straight. Am I wrong? In this no-foldem .50/1 world?

Is it smart to be cautious of every possible straight and flush out there? I have been burnt a lot by those. Online poker is definitely any two s00000ted, so am I playing chicken or being aware of the situation? When I bet high pair to the river is this bad? Should I ever raise? Do I get suspicious when I get called?

I guess these are the questions a Poker player has to ask.

I just flopped a set of tens. It is bet and raised. I just smooth call. Raise on the turn when a possibly flush shows up, and suck out a chip on the river from both players. Nice $19 pot. Not too much to be scared of. Easy to play.

I flopped a set of 6’s. There was nothing terribly scary. I bet it slowly though. Why? The guy in front of me was raising the pot with his set of 2’s.. Maybe he had QQ? Nope. I won. I could have won a lot more though. Do raise his bets? I probably would have been either 2 bets or capped to the river since he had a set. Would QQ have raised? Not on this passive table. I guess I need to work out what aggression level I am comfortable with.

Card Player Magazine had a good article from Daniel Negreanu about running bad and thinking about Poker as one long session. The thing I recognized in my play the most is trying to win back my loses every night. He suggests just setting a time limit and when that time is up stop. There is always tomorrow. No hit and run. No Trying to win everything back. I really never liked Daniel Negreanu from WSOP clips, but his article was timely and excellent to read.

I am thinking of buying Ed Miller, David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth book called Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play. Mixed reviews. Not sure. It says it talks a lot more about After-Flop play, aggression and betting. I would like to read a good book about these topics. If someone has another suggestion let me know. I may give Sloe an Amazon kickback on the book if I do not do it through my own account.

I went on an epic run tonight. I played only two tables and went up and down. I set a time of 11PM as quitting. As we speak I am up 50BB+ on the tables combined. Actually $61 on one and $41 on the other. Sweet night! 11 Minutes left to go.

Fun Hand of the Night

I forgot to mention my FAVORITE hand of the night. It was during one of Sloe Jacks monster runs where the cards were hitting me in the face and slapping my ass too. I was dealt A3 in early position and decided to bet it. It is raised after me and I feel obliged to call. The flop comes AAK.

I am confident this is a good hand but I am a little scared about the kicker. I told you guys I am a chicken. I bet it. One guy raises the pot a few fold and the last guy calls. I call. The turn comes with an A for four of a kind. I am no longer afraid of my kicker.

I pause for a long moment and bet it. The two spot and three spot raise me. I pause for a long time again and I say in the chat window “No freaking way you have four aces!” proceeding to raise the bet. Both of the remaining players top it off and I am looking at a monster pot.

A rag comes on the river. One of the guys folds. The other guy raises me to the limit. I have to assume he had the K or KK. I cannot think of any other hand he would even think of playing. Winning this pot enabled me to end the night almost tripling up at that table.

I sometimes play head games with people when I have a nice hand like that. I usually get them to raise me by doing so. It is fun to see their response when I show them I had the card. Sometimes if I am being a bad winner I will say “See, I told you that you did not have the A!”

Still cant stand to lose

I still hate variance. I hate to lose. I spent the night playing Poker because I lost 2 tables and wanted to make it back. On the good side I did not go up in limits. I just kept playing until I got back to even.

One bad thing that happened was while I was playing three tables. The cards kept coming at the same time and I was falling behind. I was getting concerned and flustered by this and started making REALLY bad moves. I may cut down to two tables for a while since I can concentrate more and seem to do fewer stupid moves. I was ok with my play tonight. Sometimes I played VERY well and knew when to lay down, and other times I chased too much. I guess that is why I play, and read, and Blog so much .. to get better!

I played three tourneys tonight and came in 2,4,3 which was nice. My tourney play had been going down hill. I was patient and aggresive this time. I played my good hands with large pre-flop bets and either scared some people of the pots or won nice size pots when I did win. I was big blind for a while and isolated the small blinds and took 3-4 of them out. It was alot of fun! The final guy I took out I raised KK to his $800. He said "This is bullshit" and called me with KQ. I dominated him and he was gone. Nice guy though.

One of these days I will be willing to lose $25 or $50 in a night and just say "There is always tomorrow...". At least I have made some progress. I hope to get over $600 soon and start playing the $1/2 stakes. I want to see how that goes. It will be fun to get back into those limits.

I tried to lose.. Really I did..

I was playing two tables. One was doing decent and the other was killing me. Every AA killed on the river by a draw, trips beat by houses, it was bad. So I am down to my final 2.50 out of $25.

I then tried to lose it all. I got dealt 9-10. I raised. It was re-raised pre-flop. I raised. The flop was AKQ. Bet. I am all in. One other player calls. Turn is a rag. I am getting ready to leave. River is a 10 for a nice pot. I have now doubled up to five whole dollars!

I really really tried to lose. Really I did. I raise with a sooooted Hammer. I get raised and re-raise again. It gets capped. A single diamond for my flush draw. I bet it. Capped again. Nice Diamond. Sweet. You know what the river was, right? A Diamond! So now I am back in the game. I have around fifteen bucks to play with, and I ended the session down five bucks. I was up a little more than that on the other table so in the end it was break even.

Here is the point. I used to tell myself when I got down to the final few bucks that playing it hard was wrong. I have heard everyone say “Just leave the table. Save your few bucks.”. I am not so sure now. If I was playing in an NL game and was severely short stacked what would I do? I would start going all in at the end and either double up to a respectable number, go out, or make a few blinds pushing people around. I am either back in the game or going home anyway.

Why does this not apply to a ring game? If I have decent cards and I am way ahead I am going to play them with my normal slightly aggressive style. However if I am critically short stacked why not play them with the aggression meter turned way up? Once I get back to a safe level I can play my game again. If I bust out then so be it. At least I tried. So go for it!