7.28.2010

Update

I've been mostly playing on Absolute Poker lately, splitting my time between cash games of 50 NL 6 Max and MTT's $20 and below. The cash games have been profitable and I'm also getting 30% rakeback through raketherake.com

My ROI between SnG's and MTT's is somewhere around 50% right now. It should be much higher but I played a $50 MTT and $30 MTT and failed to cash in each and my volume is still quite low - under 40 games played. I've made a couple Final Tables in smaller MTT's but have not been able to get higher than 6th.

I felt like I played very bad in one of them and I took two brutal bad beats in the other one. With small fields and soft play I'm not worried at all about my future results there.

That's basically why I haven't posted much. I've been running decently and playing very well and I don't like to make semi-brag posts. I also don't like to make bad beat posts.

The plan now is to go back to Boston this weekend and get my PC to bring down to NJ. From there I'll buy a second monitor and get to work on a pro set up. I want HEM, Table Ninja, the second monitor, and a comfy chair.

I work until about 8 PM most days right now so I plan on being on more of a morning cash game schedule - waking up around 6 AM to play the donks and the tired and take their coin. MTT's will have to wait until Sundays but I'd also like to add Wednesday to that because Wednesday is the new Sunday.

That's it for now. I plan on writing a smallish strat post about playing MTT's according to stack size pretty soon.

Good luck on the tables.

7.16.2010

Slow News Day

I haven't been playing a hell of a lot lately. I'm working late hours so going home and playing the late night MTT's while tired is -EV.

I moved some cash to Absolute Poker and will be ramping up that balance each month for sure. Decent MTT schedule, soft cash games, and 30% rakeback make it appealing to me.

I made the Final Table of a $2,000 Guaranteed MTT but busted 7th due to entering as the short stack and being sandwiched between the two chipleaders.

I also finished 10th in a 4 Max MTT so things have been picking up. Small fields and prize pools but I'm showing profit and that's all that counts for now.

Cash is going well. I stacked a couple people in 100 NL last night by coolering them. Then another guy kept firing at me when I flopped a set and all he had was 2nd pair and a gutshot.

Will probably play a light schedule tonight and take the weekend off because I'm driving from New Jersey to Boston around 4 AM tomorrow and spending the weekend back there with my girlfriend and her family.

The plan is to get my PC set up in NJ and use a dual monitor set up to play 8 tables of 100 NL on days where I won't be playing MTT's. Sundays and probably Wednesdays will be my MTT days. Cash games the rest of the way.

7.12.2010

Sundayments

I need to migrate to another poker site. Twice yesterday I played micro MTT's for $5 buy-ins and made it down to the final 40 from fields of over 1500 only to lose in brutal fashion in each.

Busto Hand 1:

30 left of about 1800. Blinds are 2000/4000 with antes and I get QQ UTG. I make it 8250 and get 2 callers from MP. We all have 25-30 bb stacks. I'm readless since I just changed tables.

Flop 2d 3s 6c. I can play it a couple ways. I can c-bet around 40% pot here with the intention of calling an all-in or I can check to see if either of them take a stab. I elect to check since it's unlikely that this board hit either of them unless they flopped a set in which case they didn't have proper odds to set mine making it a poor flat call.

The first chimp also checks but the second chimp bets 30% pot and it feels like a really weak bet. I don't feel like flatting here OOP though so I stick in a decent check-raise. Chimp 1 folds and Chimp 2 instacalls. Second sign of weakness. Anyone with a real hand needs time to think there.

The Turn pairs the board, bringing another 3. My stack size is now such that an all-in here on the Turn is my move.

Starting Stack: 118k
Raise pre to 8250 (110k)
Check-Raise to 35k on flop after he bet 10k (75k)

When he flatted my check-raise the pot became about 72k and my stack was around 75k making it the perfect spot - I sized my CR on purpose this way.

I shove and he snap calls with 5h6h.

River: 4x

Seriously? Wow. I guess he knew it was coming. Clownbox. Way to get your whole stack in on the Turn drawing to 6 outs. Another lifetime negative ROI player uses my #Runbad to his advantage.

Busto Hand 2: This one was a lot more standard for me. I get it all-in pre with KK against AJ and my opponent flops trip Jacks. 80bb pot. Yep, you guessed it - another negative ROI player sucks out hard against me.

I'm going to gather up all these players and put them to work in the red light district to make me some damn money since they're so good at sucking.

Back to the grind.

7.07.2010

Eric Aude Is A Funny Dude

From his blog:
I meet a few interesting characters like this chick who played Jan on the Brady Bunch movie, whose married, but keeps hinting that she wants me to perform oral sex on her, and I outlast 75 percent of the field. 3 tables left, I’ve a little over 38k when I’ve got KK. Finally, jesus christ, a fucking hand. Some clueless cockfuck makes it 6k. I call. I never go all in with this fucking hand. Nasa did a study a few years back on the affects of pocket Kings in Zero Gravity. They concluded a fucking ace will still come out on the flop. So I just call. Heads up, the flop is 555, he continuation bets 6k, i move all in, he instant calls with AK. Turns a Q, rivers a fucking 5. God Damn Poker man. That’s fucking normal. I’m going bowling.

7.01.2010

Truckin' Along

I had a decent score last night relative to the buy-in. I've been playing the $1+R nightly turbo on PokerStars because it has excellent value. 1st place ends up being around $1600-1800. I took 5th for about $500.

One thing I definitely need to do more is defend my big blind later in tournaments. As a medium stack you can exploit other medium stacks who raise any two cards in late position by jamming and making it impossible for them to call with a strong holding which they'll very rarely show up with.

I'm not sure how to treat my small blind. I suppose you can also defend in a similar way but tighten your range slightly because of the extra player to act behind. Having reads on your opponents goes without saying.

I'm not going to monkey jam against a rock who hasn't shown many steal attempts. I will start jamming any Ace and a lot of other hands against the looser players. Not only will you often scoop the pot but you'll put it in their heads that you defend your blind so they'll be less apt to raise completely wide in a lot of cases.

I defended my big blind a lot last night in the Turbo out of pure necessity and noticed how often they simply folded so I'll be working this into my game as well.

A big part of me is adverse to busting trying to make a move but I'm sure that's partially limiting my results, too. The trick is to balance it all out and not overcompensate by suddenly playing like a maniac (or playing like a total nit if your leak is playing too loose). Like a lot of other things, poker is often a game of small adjustments. You need to identify what works for you and then put in every effort to perfect it.

Right now I'm favoring my small ball counterpunching strategy where I get opponents to spaz shove against me. I've tried running over tables but not enough people have a fold button at the lower stakes.