lol donkaments

Low Volume

2010-09-03T11:12:00.004-04:00

I got a new puppy recently and they require as much or more work than a newborn baby.

I say more work since at least babies don't stare at you and shit in the corner 5 minutes after you stood outside with them for a half hour.

He's a cute dog, though. My girlfriend's choice. I'd have definitely picked a larger dog - he's a mix of Chihuahua and Shih Tzu but looks like neither of those. He looks like a Yellow Lab that will never weigh over 15-20 pounds.

I probably won't be able to do much volume at all until he's housetrained. I'm on a long-term work assignment in New Jersey and living in a small one bedroom apartment so I would be lighting money on fire to try and concentrate on MTT games while training a puppy and taking him outside every hour.

Instead I've been getting up at 5 AM to grind 90 Man KO's on Full Tilt and I've made money but not enough for me to continue doing this.

It's scary how fast my game is developing, though. I'm putting people on exact hands, finding good squeeze spots, etc. I know variance kicks in and you end up running into monsters now and then but a +EV spot will always be a +EV spot and once you identify them you become a dangerous player if you also know how to play post-flop.

I've made some sick hero calls and any time I get down to heads-up in a 90 Man I absolutely own the other person from start to end whether I have the chip lead or not.

The key is to remember when you get heads up the average person is very afraid to make a mistake within the first few hands so you should raise every button and 3-bet their button raises in the beginning to establish dominance. After that just play a good post-flop game in position and wear them down until they snap and spaz out with bottom or middle pair.

Easy game.

I kid. It's not easy. The second you get content there's some 19 year old kid with all the time in the world on his hands who passes you by because he's hungrier for it. You can't lose the hunger.

Once you do you may as well cash out and find a new hobby.

This isn't a game. It's war where gambling is involved. We all start with the same arsenal but it's the ones who march in a straight line who will always get cut down and never stand at the end.

Always have a plan for your hand. Ask yourself how you'll react to your opponent's possible actions. Ask yourself what he might hold. Ask yourself what he thinks you might hold. Or ask yourself if he even thinks that way. It's not hard to spot.

Remember the way ahead/way behind concept.

Remember to control the size of the pot whenever you can. Don't bluff when you rep really thin. Don't take a ridiculous pre-flop line with Aces and Kings. Don't lose your fold equity.

Good luck.

"Dr" Laura

2010-08-19T11:48:00.004-04:00

Pretty sure this is the first time I've ever heard a white person with a radio show openly ask a black person why they shouldn't be allowed to say the n-word and argue why they should be allowed to in not so many words.

Not surprising then when this finally happened it was Dr. Laura. She's Rush Limbaugh with an older, less used vagina.

But first we need to step back and ask an important question: Why was this pigeonhead with an overpriced haircut still on the radio?

If I remember correctly, she gave herself the moniker of Dr. without there being any disclaimer that it was just for entertainment purposes. It wasn't until some reporter who hated went digging around that this came to be news. I'm sure whoever hired her in the first place knew it was bullshit and probably even came up with the idea, but misleading people like that is a scumbag move. She doesn't even give good advice so I guess shame on middle America as well for giving her words any credibility.

I digress ...

I heard the audio this morning and she's pretty damn racist.

My favorite part was probably right after the caller went over what was bothering her and why (she's married to a white dude and the white dude's friends and family make what she perceives to be racial remarks) and Dr. Laura immediately declared there is no racist undertones and then launched into a tangent about black people voting for Obama and why they did.

LOL WUT?

News flash, dip shit. This was the first time in the history of the country where a black person or a woman actually stood a real chance of becoming president.

I'd full expect every black person or woman in America to vote in a biased way solely because of this - and she acts surprised? Wow.

Pretty sure we've had more than our share of WASP fuck-ups so let someone else take a crack at it.

Back to the original question by the caller. As Dr. Laura, even if you personally don't agree that the comments or questions have racial undertones it's something very real to the caller which makes it an issue to discuss. She's not asking if it's racism. She's saying something bothers her and she's asking you, self-proclaimed know-it-all with a radio show, how to deal with it and talk it out, you fucking moron.

Apparently the husband's family and friends are making the woman feel like she needs to be the spokesperson for all black people everywhere by asking her what black people think of such and such etc. etc.

Huh? I really wanted to find out what those questions were.

So tell me... what do black people think of diversifying your portfolio by trading Options and Futures?

Can I ask you something? Do black people wonder why stopping the space program for 2 years hasn't been done yet even though it would erase our deficit and cure homelessness and unemployment?

I'm really curious.

Anyways.

Then Dr. Laura ended up telling the woman, "Don't go all NAACP on me." You stay classy, San Diego. The only way this call could have been more of a dumpster fire is if she kept throwing in the phrase "you people" when talking to the woman.

It seems like she was genuinely wondering why white people can't say the n-word and black people can.

Look, there are certain unwritten rules that we have to follow in this life.

1. No talking in the restroom. Ever.

2. When two women want you to say which one of them is right, always side with who will give you poon.

3. White people can not say the n-word.

It really comes down this. Why do you want to say it? When would you ever say it where it would be socially acceptable and not make everyone else uncomfortable? If Obama came on TV and said, "Ok, assholes. You win. We give up. Just say it from now one whenever you want to." In what situation to you run into a room thinking "Ooooooooooh here's my big chance! Finally, time to shine!"

Besides a Klan rally or in an internet forum, where you won't get your own asshole force fed to you.

The word has taken on such a hate filled, bigoted meaning that you should never want to say it or even want anyone else to say it no matter what the context.

In rap it's just a filler line for rappers who can't write worth a shit. Same thing in comedy. It'll get cheap laughs and takes no thought or creativity to write the material. Just say it loud and clear at the end of a worthless punchline to save the joke.

I'm sure all of this sounds funnier in my head but I've been wanting to write anything but poker content so a big thanks to this bobble-headed dunce for giving me the chance.

So Close Yet So Far

2010-08-19T11:45:00.002-04:00

Daily Double A: 10th Place
Daily Double B: 40th Place

I received an extra $40 for the double cash and thought I had a chance at the bonus for best combined results but some other prick beat me with a Final Table appearance in one of them.

It sucks, because I lost KK to QQ in the Double A and lost JJ to AQ in the Double B so I could have done so much better.

Last week something just clicked for me. Tournament poker makes so much more sense now. I'm adapting to gameflow and taking better notes. I'm making moves where I didn't make moves before and they are working more times than they are failing.

The rest of 2010 will be profitable.

2011 will be the nuts.

A Couple Of "Almosts" and Cash Talk

2010-08-02T11:40:00.003-04:00

MTTs

I played around 8 MTT's Sunday and cashed in 6. Of those, one was a Final Table 8th place and another was a 12th place. The rest were middle of the road cashes. Then I picked up a buy-in grinding 600 hands of 50 NL so all in all not a bad little day.

I'm starting to be content with these deeper finishes instead of going on life tilt which is nice. My girlfriend will appreciate me getting bette at that, too.

I've been playing a lot on Absolute Poker. I deposited $50 a couple weeks ago and my bankroll is sitting around $310 now with $75 in rakeback payments pending. My cash game play has been up and down say the least.

Cash

50 NL has so many call stations. This means you need the balls to two barrel and three barrel bluff. They'll be calling like 80% of flop c-bets and maybe rightfully so. This means you need to pay special attention to their Turn and River fold percentages. Weak-Passive fish will call tons of flops with improper drawing odds but since they are weak they will not go all the way to showdown unless it's a very special type of fish, and these ones you simply value bet and never bluff.

This also means you should polarize your 3 betting hands to just your strong hands. No need to do anything else against Level 1 and Level 2 players.

Bluffing

Ok, so Harrington On Hold Em got everyone thinking about how most flops miss both players and usually the person who takes the lead wins the pot, right? Still holds true but now that everyone knows this you don't win as much on the flop anymore.

TAG style dictates raising your good hands, c-betting 100%, and shutting down on the Turn if you still fail to have a hand. You'll lose a lot of money to weak/passive fish this way and I'm sure you will still profit long-term but at a reduced rate.

Oh hai Two Barrel Bluff.

The best flops to bluff are dry flops like K 2 7 rainbow which contains one "scare card" and two other cards unlikely to hit your opponent. If you bet this flop and get called you can start narrowing down your opponent's range. He could float with A high. He could have a weakish K. He could have a medium pair. Hands like QT and 9T are likely to just fold to the c-bet.

When the Turn comes, the best cards to bluff at are other scare cards that don't complete draws. In this case you can safely fire and 2nd barrel and shut down if called.

Conversely, wet flops are bad to bluff since they can hit your opponent's range hard. A flop like 6c 7c 8h is never seeing a c-bet from me when I hold a hand like AdQd because I'm creating a large pot with no redraw and quite possibly already crushed in the hand.

Three Barrel Bluffs are very read dependent. Often you'll try them on a flop like As 4h 5h where your opponent just calls the c-bet. Then a card like 9s comes on the Turn and you fire again. When the river brings something like Qd you can try a three barrel bluff if you think your opponent is holding 67 or a busted heart draw.

Again, read dependent and you want the opponent to have a high River fold percentage. Otherwise you're just spewing chips.

I never gave an example of what we hold here. With a hand like a medium pair I will three barrel. Same with JT, etc. and hands you can only win with by bluffing.

With a baby Ace or a Queen I have showdown value and so I will just check back on the river instead of firing a third shell. Often times your Q will be good and sometimes you will lose to a baby Ace that was scare to ever raise you, but at least you saved money by not firing the third bullet.

50 NL Strategy

Basically, it's this:

Open only good hands in EP. Flat a lot of speculative hands on the button. Only 3 bet my strong hands. Larger 3 bet when playing from the blinds as I'll be out of position in the hand. C-bet most flops. Identify players who fold lots of Turns and 2 Barrel Bluff them. Otherwise play ABC TAG poker.

So far so good but I catch myself calling too much some times. These weak players will never two barrel you light so it's important to be able to release marginal hands like 2nd and 3rd pair.

That's it for now. Good luck at the tables.

Update

2010-07-28T11:56:00.002-04:00

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.

Slow News Day

2010-07-16T16:48:00.002-04:00

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.

Sundayments

2010-07-12T10:47:00.003-04:00

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.

Eric Aude Is A Funny Dude

2010-07-07T14:50:00.001-04:00

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.

Truckin' Along

2010-07-01T10:26:00.004-04:00

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.

Jimmy Fricke Is Awesome

2010-06-30T11:16:00.004-04:00

Regarding Darvin Moon:

I don't think it's more like we're angry that he isn't doing these things for poker. I think we're more angry that we feel that he doesn't deserve what he has done so far.
People in poker have this thing where they believe that anyone worse than them doesn't deserve any results whatsoever and anyone better than them deserves many more results than they already have.
And poker isn't like that. Poker means that you're going to be losing a lot of things where you got the money in ahead and winning lots of things where you got the money in behind. And if you're playing bad you can win and if you're playing good you can lose.

@%%*& !!! A Strategy Post!

2010-06-29T14:16:00.004-04:00

This blog is approaching one year old. I had no idea. Thanks to all who have read and commented along the way.

I realize this blog started to slowly degenerate into a collection of bad beat stories - I'll be making sure that changes.

I digress.

Last night I played well and didn't make a single dollar in profit but I did make strides in improving my game. I was able to ramp up my aggression at the tables and build a table image I wanted. I was selectively 3-betting people and rarely getting 4-bet. I took full advantage of donks looking to min-cash and avoid bubbling (note: Unless you're playing $20 buy-ins or higher there really is no bubble to speak of. No one cares about min-cashing for $8).

I broke even for the night by finishing 3rd in a $4 180 Man MTT and busted on a cooler hand (ran AKs into KK three handed. Awesome!).

My MTT strategy seems to be paying dividends already. I'm making more deep runs and when I bust I can safely say it is very rarely due to making a poor decision.

I've been flatting my whole range before the antes kick in and I've been raising 3x early and 2.2 - 2.4x once antes start getting higher. From LP with a good hand I'll make it more like 2.7 - 3x to see if I can make these look like pure steal attempts and induce people to spaz out and jam from the SB or BB very light.

I've also been limp/shoving hands like JJ and QQ if I limp in MP and the Button bumps it up. I've been called as light as 44 in spots like this because you just don't see that type of play very often. When people get caught off guard their first instinct is to just monkey shove their whole pile for fear of being bluffed.

I haven't needed to bluff all that often lately and I haven't needed to get into many coinflips, either. The next thing I need to work on is reaching showdown a lot less but I think this is more a function of them not having a fold button at the low stakes than me doing something wrong.

It's important to remember that in MTT's unless you have the nizzles you really don't want to screw around and simply give people slightly the worst of it for calling odds. You want to win the pot on the turn as many times as possible and with onine structures this often means sizing your pre-flop and flop bets such that the only action you can take on the turn is to jam against them.

If you don't size your bets correctly you're going to have a very awkward stack and no fold equity on a lot of rivers and then it's usually incorrect for your opponent to fold to another bet because the pot has gotten so large.

Keep your pots small and play in position as much as possible. Make sure you're the one who's making the decision to grow the pot size and then manage your stack properly.

I know my results will come. I've been playing far too good for them not to. It's just a matter of time and playing against smaller fields.

$$$ and Frustration

2010-06-28T18:35:00.003-04:00

I might have to suck it up and put a lot more money online. Playing these large field $5 and $10 donkaments are brutal. I can maintain my concentration throughout but you need to get lucky in so many spots to make deep run and even then you can play for 6 hours to make $60. No thanks.

I'll probably ramp up the bankroll and stop playing everything below a $20 entry fee soon except for the $8 rebuy and $10 rebuy MTT's and a very select few MTT's such as the $11 2R1A which has excellent value and deep play.

There's also not much point in me grinding 50 nl and 100 nl cash which I can beat easily when I could just as well move more cash online and play 200 nl before moving back up to 400 nl and 600 nl where I used to play regularly. I'm sure the games are much harder than they were three years ago but as long as there are cards and computers in this world there will be fish.

And I will find them. Screw trading button 3-bets with regs - I'll be content playing the worst people in the world for the rest of my life.

Boomswitch Me

2010-06-23T13:45:00.005-04:00

This is when you know you're running well.

$100 NL 6 Max

Hero is UTG. Villain is BB.

Hero: $88
Villain: $141

Hero raises to $4 with KK
All folds to BB
BB calls $3

Flop: Qd 4h 2h

BB checks
Hero bets $6.50

Villain check-raises me all-in here. My first thought was that he had something like JhTh, KQ, or AQ by the way he'd been playing. I decided that I'm ahead of his range with with less than 90 bb's I'm not folding anyway.

Of course he has pocket 2's and decides to check-jam which isn't that bad of a line if you feel like your opponent is only raising and c-betting strong hands. This line sucks against me, though, because I play LAG and I'd have taken the same line with hands like 46s, 77, etc. and I will 2 barrel a lot of boards that have draws.

Anyways, the turn and river were the case Kings to give me quads.

<3 PokerStars, haha.

Better.

2010-06-22T10:55:00.002-04:00

Using my new MTT strategy I felt like I managed to accumulate more chips and control my stack better. Here are a couple examples of hands where the new strategy seemed to benefit me.

I was able to flat AK three times in position and two of the three yielded positive results.

Once I flatted an MP open from the Button and the BB shipped 15 blinds. MP folded and I called and had the BB's AJo dominated.

I flatted AK again from the Hijack seat against an EP open and stacked his KQ on a H high flop.

The third situation I flatted from late position but whiffed the flop and folded to a c-bet on a very coordinated board.

In both instances where I chipped up I think a 3-bet would make everyone fold.

I also managed to 3-bet fairly often when blinds kicked in with my suited connectors, big hands, and a couple junk hands. Only twice was I re-popped. In all other situations I was either flatted by someone playing the rest of the hand out of position or everyone folded.

Medium Aces are good hands to 3-bet - they're near the top of your folding range and you have a blocker card which makes it less likely that your opponent's hand contains an Ace. I was also 3-betting my medium pairs. You don't flop sets often enough to flat, jamming is too spewy, and folding is too weak. With very deep stacks I'll flat but you're rarely in a spot with both of you are 50 bb's deep or more online once you get out of the early stages of the tournament.

3-betting hands like 77 and 99 either win me the pot without seeing a flop or I'll be jammed over the top and feel pretty good about folding. There's nothing worse than flatting with 99 and seeing the flop come 7 high, then getting it in against a couple Queens or some other hand that has you crushed.

I played 5 MTT's last night and cashed in 3 of them. 2 of those were pretty deep runs in which I got down to 50 players or less from fields of 1000+ players.

This is encouraging.

MTT Strat

2010-06-18T17:11:00.002-04:00

I think I'm going with this basic formula for a while.

1. Flat my whole range pre-flop before the antes kick in - caveat being if it's a multiway pot and I want to get some people out of the hand

If you 3-bet AK when stacks are still fairly deep you're probably not getting any action by hands like AT, AJ, and AQ but if you flat in position you can own their souls when an Ace flops.

2. 3-bet way more often once antes kick in

I feel like you probably need at least 30 bb's to do so and hands you should be 3 betting are your monsters, the top of your folding range, and random trash hands mixed in to balance our your range.

The top of your folding range is an important one. I like to 3-bet with blocker cards like an Ace or King because it makes it less likely that the original raiser contains one in his hand. You'd never want to flat with A6s but you could 3-bet and fold out lots of loose raises like JT, small pairs, KJ, A8, A9, etc.

3. Play more of a counterpunching game

This goes hand in hand with number two on the list. No one has a fold button anymore. You can't c-bet a raggy board and fold out two overs, Ace high, etc. I'd much rather limp a middle pair and play a small pot than try to raise and c-bet to get a fold out of anyone these days.

I want a lot of my game to be three betting from late position and only open raising strong hands. I think my results could take a drastic uptick if I have normal variance.

I've been listening to guys like Carter King, Brian Devonshire, and Jimmy Fricke and this seems to be their strategy. 2.2-2.4x raises preflop to size their bets such that you can commit on the Turn when you want to and 3-betting players who raise too loose and back down to aggression.

Well, here's to hoping it works.

SnG Strat

2010-06-16T08:49:00.003-04:00

Conventional wisdom says to play tight early and loosen up once the antes kick in. With any luck you've managed to accumulate some chips so you aren't immediately forced into push/fold mode at the 50/100 level.

I tend to stay away from this line of thought and my ROI has been good.

With so many players mass-multitabling the SnG's you can easily pilfer the blinds by playing pretty loose pre-flop from MP and LP before anyone will catch on.

I've been raising a lot of hands from MP especially. No one online believes a Button or Hijack raise anymore. They're seen as pure steal attempts so I make my steals from UTG and MP with a high success rate.

Even if someone calls my UTG raise they're folding a lot of the time if an Ace or King flops because everyone online puts you on AK when you raise.

At some point you do go into push/fold mode and that's when I'll shove on the blinds with about 70% of my hands if we're down to 4 or 5 handed and I have them covered. They aren't calling unless they have 99+, AJ+.

Or, they shouldn't be.

Right now the best SnG's for my money are the Rush SnG's on Full Tilt. More hands means more chances for the bad players to make simple fundamental mistakes.

This Is A Call

2010-06-10T10:44:00.003-04:00

If there are any MTT players who read this blog I'd like to offer up a suggestion.

I'd like to create and maintain a small network of players to discuss hand histories, talk tournament strategy - basically create a braintrust so we can all combine our experience and knowledge to become better players.

I've always felt that one of my biggest setbacks is having zero poker friends. This was further reinforced when I started reading 2+2 and PocketFives.com and realized a lot of these people have mentors, coaches, etc.

So if anyone is interested feel free to reply to this post and we can go from there.

I'm not currently an AIM user but I can easily set up a screen name and start chatting about poker.

Speaking Of Masochism ...

2010-06-04T09:47:00.002-04:00

I played a $3 rebuy last night and finished 19th of 1900.

Standard bust out hand.

Blinds 8000/16000/XXX

Me: T285,000
Villain: T302,000

I raise to 38,500 UTG with KcKs

Folds to Villain on the button who makes it 85,000.

His OPR stats tell me he's a moron - negative ROI over 1,000 MTT's. I jam.

He snap calls with AdTd <------ LOL WUT. If you ever do this against a solid player, immediately log off and find a new hobby. 99 would be the worst hand you'd ever be up against in this spot.

Flop 8d 6c 6s
Turn Qd
River 2d

One day I'll win as a massive favorite when it means something substantial.

Back To Basics

2010-05-29T18:36:00.002-04:00

What do you do when you come down with a case of the run bads?

Switch to games with lower variance. I've started mass multi-tabling SnG's with about half of them being turbos and so far I've had positive results.

It's nice to put one in the win column even if it's not what you originally had in mind.

SnG's are pretty mindless, too. You can figure out who is good and who is not very quickly just by seeing what hands get played in the first three levels.

After that if you haven't managed to build a big chip stack you play your push/fold game and hope for the best.

I don't personally know anyone who enjoys playing SnG's but they are very profitable and the object of this game is to make money - some times I forget that and play games that are "fun" for me like Pot Limit Omaha even if I don't have an edge at the table.

This downswing reminded me there's a time for fun and a time to make that scrilla. I'm going to stick with the SnG's for a while in order to better practice bankroll management and also be able to manage my poker playing time a little better.

A couple times I'd find myself down in New Jersey deep in a tournament with a healthy chip stack, but starting to nod off a bit. Not good. Not good for your bankroll or your health so it's time to change that.

When I made a couple Final Tables in March it was ok - but now reality and variance has set in so I need to balance a lot of things: My sleep, my diet, my relationship, my 3-bet range ... it never ends.

But poker is last in line. It has to be.

My Chart Looks Like the F'ing Stock Market

2010-05-27T14:38:00.002-04:00

The majority of 2010 has been a real exercise in patience for me.

I can now count 8 times where I went extremely deep in large tournaments (down to 3 tables) only to lose a 70/30 situation or better.

Because I've been hauling my ass back and forth between Boston and New Jersey every week I've been playing low volume. Seems like no matter what the volume is I get the same results:

Shit. Right on my face.

I played a $10 Rebuy not that long ago and we were down to 23 players. Awesome, right? Sure. First place was about $6500 I think.

I was dealt KK in the big blind. I'm not a doom and gloom person. My first instinct is never, "Great, here comes the bad beat." Screw that shit. I was thinking of a nice little double up when the chipleader raised from middle position. A double up would put me around 3rd or 4th in chips.

Blinds were 2500/5000/250 (?) - I always forget the ante amounts.

He raised to 20,000 and I'm not sure how you guys feel, but whenever I see someone raise 3X or larger when the antes kick in I immediately classify them as a bad player, or a novice. But that's only because fish make big raises when smaller ones will still earn folds. Call me a cynic ...

I can play this two ways.

1. Jam the pile in his stupid Russian face (no offense if any of you are of Russian lineage - it's just that they are still horrible at "the poker")

2. Flat and either lead out or check-jam a non-ace flop.

He's a loose player so I decide to flat instead of jamming and seeing a fold the majority of the time.

The flop is 9s 3h 2c so basically a perfect flop for me. And a perfect flop for him, so he thinks, if he has TT, JJ, or QQ. With his 4X raise preflop I think he is very likely to have a medium pair a lot of the time. Or he has something like AK/AQ but I place AK lower on the chart since I'm holding two of the kings.

I decide to check-raise all-in. Not to worry, he open jams a shit ton chips when I check to him. I of course instacall to see him turn over the monster A9 and watch as a third 9 hits on the turn.

Know what the worst part of being a good player is? You're never on the right side of that.

A good player never plays so badly that he needs a miracle card unless you get caught in a total cooler situation.

I can't remember the last time I owned myself and lucked out massively. I guess that's a good thing only I don't have the results to support it.

FML.

Maybe it's the fact I'm only playing around eight tournaments per week these days. I played four this week and cashed in three of them. Nothing substantial, though - 6 times my buy-in was the largest one, but it was a $100 MTT so I guess I have that going for me.

I'm done with the pokering for a bit. I've been home in Boston all week and spending a lot of time with my girlfriend which has been nothing short of perfect. It's also been really nice out and our apartment has two skylights and tons of windows so everywhere I look is a constant reminder to stop sitting on my ass and enjoy life.

Speaking of ...

You do the same, got it? Right now. Go on... get out of here!

My New Favorite Tournaments

2010-05-17T17:05:00.002-04:00

I'm enjoying the single rebuy and add-on tournaments a lot lately. They aren't turbo structured so there is a lot of room for making moves during these tournaments. I think the optimal strategy is to use your rebuy immediately and play it like a freezeout for the first hour.

Last night I played 2 of these and a lot of players are calling off massive amounts of chips with a single pair in their hand - me likey.

It's a very advantageous format for people used to deep stacked cash games. If you've played fairly well or not run into any crippling beats or coolers you should be able to add-on and have at 40+ bb's behind.

I'm completely done with all turbo tournaments. I had managed to final table a couple of these and took that to mean I'm "good" at them. No. The blinds and antes skyrocket so much that it's merely luck.

I've done well with avoiding the turbos unless I decide to play SnG's which is a different animal. Not much going on with cash games lately. I haven't had enough time to study up on PLO to feel like it's profitable for me to sit down and play.

And the Hold Em games on Full Tilt are too rockish to hold my interest. I enjoy tournaments a lot and am actually starting to learn how to take the bad beats in stride (I have a short temper).

I think a lot of it has to do with using my girlfriend's laptop while traveling. I won't think twice about breaking my own mouse or keyboard in a moment of weakness but I respect other people's things too much to ever get that angry. So... helpful by proxy I suppose.

Plus I'm in a hotel so I can't exactly start yelling swears at 2 AM. I mean... I could, but then I'd find myself driving down the street looking for Vacancy signs. And that's no fun.

Low Volume

2010-04-23T15:05:00.002-04:00

I haven't been playing or think about poker much lately. My regular job has me traveling from Boston to Princeton, NJ every week. I leave on Monday mornings and go back to my girlfriend on Saturday mornings. It will taper off but for now it is what it is.

Last night I took 4th in a smallish $10 rebuy for $1400 which was nice. I was cripped when my AcQc lost to Ad6h all-in preflop. I busted when I ran KJo into A8o and didn't catch. FTOPS is going on now and I plan on playing a few events. Would be nice to bink one and get a gold jersy.

I've also been playing, and having much success, in the 145 Man Rush Poker tournaments.

Cash games have been break even for the most part with profit coming from rakeback but I'm starting to get the desire to focus on tournaments again. I think that desire will always be there until I can manage a solid 5 digit or 6 digit score because I know I'm capable of multiple ones. I've gotten close three times now by final table bubbling some large events.

Change of Plans

2010-04-07T09:33:00.002-04:00

I've decided to start off on the 40 bb short-stacked PLO tables on Full Tilt and so far it's working out pretty well.

The beauty of these tables are that with a single 3-bet and call you're all in on the flop and so difficult decisions on later streets are taken out of the equation.

This makes hands like AAxx and KKxx far easier to play than when you're sitting there with 180 bb's and facing a big decision.

As I get more confidence in my PLO game I'll move to 100 BB tables where position is the most important thing in the world, but being able to calculate your outs/odds quickly is a close second. It should be obvious what types of hands to play in PLO ... very coordinated and suited hands plus your hands like AA67, etc.

QQxx and JJxx are almost worthless. AKxx isn't far behind.

Yesterday I won 5 buy-ins and this morning I lost 3.5 - I've been told this is very standard.

PLOwnage

2010-03-30T14:23:00.004-04:00

I'm taking my cash game action to the PLO tables. I've been short-stacking 1-2 and 2-4 with decent success. Ideally I want to read a couple books, watch training videos, and play full stacked PLO at 1-2 as my starting point. I signed up for a new Full Tilt name and now receive rakeback (finally!).

If I play no-limit it will most likely be heads-up. 6-Max is quite tough at 2-4 and 3-6 these days and it's not worth my time to grind it out against many solid players.

PLO is still soft from what I've seen - players commit with very susceptible two pair hands or overcommit with a single overpair to the board, etc. You very rarely see that in mid-stakes NL anymore. In fact set mining isn't even that profitable anymore because these guys are capable of making many good folds.

More to come on my PLO adventures. There are several books I want to order on Amazon so I plan on reading up before I venture any further.

Careful Who You Challenge

2010-03-26T09:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was playing some 1/2 NL short-stack tables on Full Tilt while watching Syrcause lose to Butler and chatting on AIM. It's a pretty mindless game and I was basically just out to score some more points for satellites.

I accidentally bad beat a guy when we got it all in on a flop of 5s 6s Jc. I had KsQs and he had As4s. I spiked a queen to stack him and he started flipping out in the chat box about me "playing 18/10 weak tight" and then challenged me to a heads-up game (of course). I checked my FTP balance and saw I had a little under $3,000 so I decided to keep it modest and ask if he wanted to play 3/6.

He of course accepted, thinking I was full of it. I instantly sat at 4 tables and asked him to join all four to which he replied, "1 table". Sure.

386 hands later I'd taken $1900 off of him. My heads-up game is strong. I won't lie. I instantly establish a balanced 3-betting range against randoms and then begin to lure them into the meta-game that is light 4-betting and 5-betting. A couple hands of note:

Hand 1: Approximately 60 hands into the session and I had been 3-betting him with a pretty standard range. I opened on the button for $18 and he made it $48 which was his 3-betting size for all raises. I made it $129. He folded and I showed 72o and asked if we were playing prop bets.

Hand 2: Maybe 20 hands after the 72o bluff. He opened for $18 and I made it $52 with JsQs. He called and we saw a flop of 10c Ad 2s. I led for $62 and he called after some deliberation which initally made me think he had a 10 in his hand. Kh on the turn gave me the nuts and I checked. He bet half pot and I called. The river brought another 2 and I checked again. He jammed and I instacalled. He was strong that I thought with ATo, obviously planning to trap me by flatting my c-bet.

Hand 3: This was near the end of the session and he was getting 3-bet a lot by me and was probably steaming. I had around $1900 and he kept topping off and was sitting on 100 bb's. I opened to $18 from the button with JsJc and he made it $48. I made it $129 and asked if we were still playing prop bets. He jammed and I called. He had 88 and I held for another $600 profit.

This is far from a brag post. I use it as a cautionary tale not only to you but as a reminder to myself

He sat out after that and left about 10 minutes later. Just because someone is playing a certain way at a certain time does not mean that is their normal game and you should never move to a totally different game and play them the same way. He thought I was just some guy who sat and waited for the nuts when the reality was I was simply goofing around while watching a basketball game and not playing anything close to my normal game.

I've made this mistake before and I'm sure I will make it again. I'd just like to think I would realize my mistake before I lost three buy-ins.

The Nuts Is Overrated Before the River

2010-03-23T11:08:00.002-04:00

I couldn't run good forever.

I'm getting killed in online poker. I'm down 7 buy-ins in the last two days because my customers are hitting every single draw on me.

But, dear readers, your old pal FkCoolers won't give up.

Usually I'll take a day or two off from poker when I run this poorly in order to balance out my life and ensure that some poor results at the tables aren't affecting me overall. If you end up pouring your entire self into anything, and it goes poorly, you're in for a bumpy road.

So my advice is this: balance, balance, balance. Find something you're good at and use it to offset the bad beats to lift your mood. For me it's kicking the crap out of zombies on easy mode playing Left 4 Dead 2.

You'd be surprised at what mowing down an entire hotel full of zombies with an axe can do to shake off 6 outers!

Cash Game 3 Betting

2010-03-16T13:05:00.002-04:00

This is a concept that I think a lot of players are catching on to but not a lot of players are necessarily doing correctly.

First, there is far more pre-flop 3-betting online than live so I'll tackle the online game first.

What I usually see are people 3-betting their premium hands and suited connectors. I don't really think this is the way to go. Suited connectors have a lot of value in seeing a flop cheaply and hitting the board in two places or flopping a strong draw. If you 3-bet them you're either going to get folds from weakish hands or you're going to get 4-bet by monsters and be unable to continue. Only your small percentage of passive call station players will go to a flop with you.

I think you should be 3-betting your monsters but also 3-betting your hands that are not strong enough to call a raise like 107s, J9s, 35s, etc. This balances out your range quite nicely and when you do crush the flop you could win a massive pot. And if you miss the flop you're still playing your hand in position and your opponent must guess if this is when you have a premium hand or not.

Live poker is different. From my experience at Foxwoods and Borgata (and a little in Vegas) people in 1/2 and 2/5 games are only 3-betting their premium holdings with very few exceptions. For this reason I would probably elect to flat with almost my whole hand range that I decide to play, including premium hands (but this only applies if I'm closing the action or if the call means the pot is heads up). Granted, you may face tougher decisions on each street but I think you'll also extract more money this way since the 2/5 players love to bet aggressively on the flop and turn with most of their holdings that catch a piece.

At Borgata I saw a player commit about $250 to a hand holding 2nd pair and betting into top pair the whole way. And this isn't that abnormal based on my one week there. You just need the balls to muster up some pretty big calls at the end. Here's a hint: If it's a young Asian, never fold.

Back to the Real World

2010-03-15T09:51:00.002-04:00

... Whatever that means.

Atlantic City was a good time. After deducting transportation, meals, and hotel fare I still took home about $3500 playing nothing but 2/5 NL at Borgata.

Borgata charges you time at the 2/5 game to the tune of $5 per half hour instead of raking pots which ends up working out in your favor since each pot would be raked $4.

I thought it could be a good trip when I was dealt black aces in the big blind my very first hand. It folded to the button who made it $25. I made it $75 total and he flatted. The flop was A Q 5 with two hearts and I led for $65. He raised to $190. I shipped and he insta-called and turned over AQ. I turned over my top set and he just kept shaking his head and saying, "that's so sick" as the rest of the board ran out.

A few hands later an older genteman raised to $25 from the hijack and it folded to me in the big blind. I called with 5d4d and we saw a flop of 8c 6c Qh. I checked and he bet $35. I called and the turn was 3s giving me more outs. I checked and he bet $55.

I took some time here. His bet sizing on the turn made me feel like he didn't have a Queen and probably had something like 99-JJ, AJ, AK, etc. I thought I could call here and lead a lot of rivers to take the pot away from him enough times to be profitable and so I called again. The river was 9c making the final board 8c 6c Qh 3s 9c and I felt like this was a great river to bluff. By his reaction to the river card I was certain he hadn't been drawing and in fact probably had nothing in his hand.

"One fifty" I announced and before I finished speaking his cards had hit the muck. A couple hands later he asked if I had 10cJc. Online you can simply ignore the chat box but when I play live I feel like saying 'yes' to any question is probably the right way to go. Saying yes here reaffirms his "good fold" and keeps him thinking I'm a solid player who's running good. The last thing you want to do is tell the other guy you bluffed him off a better hand.

Then I went card dead for about 5 orbits meaning I either had non-playable hands or everyone folded if I raised, which was very infrequent since I mostly had non-playable hands.

The next big hand to come up was this one ...

From early position, a young and very aggressive Asian player with about $700 behind made it $25 and a new player at the table flatted from mid-position. I had 8h9h and about $1300 behind on the button and flatted while both blinds folded.

The flop came out 9s9d6s and the original raiser led for $50. The MP caller folded and I studied the board, leaning forward a little bit. I did this hoping he would think I was trying to see if they were clubs or spades to find out if I had a flush draw. For some reason his bet felt strong to me and he was leaning back in his seat and checking his phone. For some people that could mean they don't have interest in the hand, but not after a lead into 2 players. I was putting him on a pretty big overpair and felt like a smooth call would be cause for concern. If I was going to extract any extra money here I felt like sticking in a large raise to make it look like I was drawing was the way to go.

With $132 in the middle I announced a raise and made it $150 more on top. This got him to sit straight up and start looking at me to get a read. "Why so much?" he asked. "You want to take it down right here, right?"

Most of the time I stay silent but this time I simply said, "I wouldn't mind." This really got him thinking. He kept telling me he thought I had a big flush draw. Finally he says, "You're on a flush draw and you're in bad shape. I go all in."

"I call."

"Ok, let me see your draw."

"I called you."

Somewhat sheepishly he turned over AsKh and then I flipped over my hand. The Turn brought a 6 to kill any hopes he might have had and I dragged another large pot.

If I had simply called his bet on the flop I'd have extracted nothing more from him. By sticking in a somewhat big raise but leaving enough room for him to shove thinking he has fold equity I opened the door for him to use his own aggro play to hang himself. I was surprised by his holding, though. Once he shoved I really felt like he did have a large pocket pair but his shove wasn't terrible. I can't really call about $500 more with a naked flush draw especially when he reps a large pocket pair on a paired board. After the hand he even said he liked my raise because he didn't expect it from a made hand and thought he could get me off of any flush draw except a straight flush draw. Can't really disagree there, either.

This post has gotten pretty long and I've only covered the first day of poker. I'll chop up the trip recap into another post or two. Last Tuesday it was 65 degrees in AC and so I didn't play any poker. Instead I chose to see the whole boardwalk and act like a tourist. Thursday, my last night there, had some decent stories and that will be coming up next.

Miscellaneous

2010-03-02T09:05:00.002-05:00

I leave for Atlantic City on Sunday morning and will be staying there five nights. I ended up booking the Waterfront Premium Suite at Harrah's and plan on asking if I can upgrade to the corner penthouse-style suite when it's time to check-in. Right now there is still availability so I'm hoping I can get the upgrade at a discounted price.

I asked about comp for the current stay. They told me I need to get a Harrah's card and then all my comp points whilst gaming can be used for future stays. Well... no shit.

I once again asked if there is any discount for my current trip if I play X amount of hours each day. After the woman began repeating herself I just gave up. Atlantic City is no Vegas. This much I know already.

Speaking of Vegas ... my girlfriend and I might be going out there at the end of the month. One of her friends wants to have her birthday there. She's trying to get everyone to stay at Treasure Island but I have other plans. I haven't been out there since a few of the newer places were built and I can't decide between Vdara, Palazzo, and Wynn/Encore. The reviews for THEHotel at Mandalay Bay look good, too. So many options ... anyone out there have opinions?

I digress.

I've been playing a fair bit of online poker lately and am sad to say I still can't kick Rush Poker. I played $100 NL for 600 hands this morning and made 2.5 buy-ins. Nothing fancy, really. I flopped a set versus top pair top kicker to win one buy-in and had a bigger flush than my opponent for the second buy-in. The tables seemed a bit more loose which I think was a direct result of playing early in the morning against more Scandinavian and Russian players. The Germans seem to have turned into competent poker players. For a while they were the dead money at the table. Now it's the French, Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and the like.

I also managed to satellite into the PokerStars Sunday Million and the Full Tilt $750,000 Guaranteed. I'm not sure if I'll play or take the $T on both sites. Actually, I take that back. I'm playing. The possibility of a six figure score or 20 more donkaments ... yeah, about that ...

Atlantic City

2010-02-25T15:24:00.002-05:00

I've never been, but I want to.

Does anyone have hotel recommendations? Comp/discount tips?

Spirit Airlines has very cheap round-trip airfare rates from Boston to Newark so I'm fine there. I'm looking to stay Sunday-Thursday next month before March Madness.

Borgata looks to be a very nice hotel but the rates have been too high for my liking so far. I won't spend enough time in the room to justify the cost.

I'm obviously beginning to read up online but so many of these websites are utter trash filled with ads all over the place. It's been tough to weed out the garbage and get to real content.

Foxwoods Recap

2010-02-24T12:20:00.002-05:00

The characters:

Seat 1 - Executive chef at a well known private country club
Seat 2 - Former investment banker
Seat 3 - Seafood cook for a decent restaurant
Seat 4 - Former 5/10 uncapped NL player who had to drop stakes
Seat 5 - Me
Seat 6 - Former president of a manufacturing company who is now self-employed. Amateur chef.
Seat 7 - Drunk tourist
Seat 8 - Young spewtard
Seat 9 - Quiet rock
Seat 10 - Younger, good player

This was my table for the better part of 12 hours. The conversations covered the best wine and restaurants in the world, investment banking, the best online poker site for cash games, the WSOP, China, and the fact that I managed to leave a 1-2 NL table with $1800.

I sat with $300 and basically folded for three or four orbits. Prior to the seafood cook taking seat 3 there was a guy in a Yankees cap who was hammering every single pot and it was working for him. No one at the table, except possibly me, was an aggressive caller and so they were laying down hand after hand to him. Then it happened.

I picked up AQ suited when he was UTG. He made it $13 and I flatted. Obviously it's a raise under most circumstances but I had a plan for the hand.

Everyone else folded, fortunately.

The flop came A 4 8 rainbow. He bet $30 and I flatted. The turn brought another 4 so at this point I was 99.8888% sure I was good. He bet $75 and I jammed over the top for about $160 more. He took a very long time and at that point I was 100% sure I was good. Finally he called and turned over AJ so I won a nice pot there.

I managed to win another pot of about $200 when I flopped top set versus a shorter stack's bottom two pair.

My biggest hand came when I had 55 on the button. There were three limpers ahead of me and I limped the button. Small blind completed and big blind checked his option.

The flop came J 3 5 with two hearts. The small blind led out for pot. Big blind called as did seat 3, the seafood cook. Seat 3 was a pretty aggressive caller who knew how to float in position and take a stab on the turn, but this was a multi-way pot and so I put him on a pretty big heart draw. I thought the SB probably had some sort of Jack in his hand and the BB probably had a Jack or a heart draw.

Obviously I needed to raise here. I made it $75 more on top and the Small Blind thought for a bit before pushing all-in for about $110. The big blind immediately shoved for about $130. Seat 3, his name was Paco, thought really long. We'd been chatting and he knew I was a good player.

Paco: I know that no matter what I do your next action is all-in and so I am doing a pre-emptive all-in. Good luck to us.

Me: You're right. I'm all-in. Let's do this.

Paco had about $340 behind when he shoved so this had turned into a really large pot. The Turn brought a Jack giving me fives full and the river was a 7 or 8. I immediately turned over my boat and the dealer began looking at everyone else.

The small blind turned over J2 of diamonds (wtf?). The BB turned over KT of hearts and even though Paco didn't have to show he sighed and showed me A7 of hearts. Wow. Just wow.

Paco gave me a fist bump and the guy to my immediate right, the former high stakes player, patted me on the back.

Seat 4: It's been a long time since I saw someone with this much money at a 1/2 table. Congratulations. You've definitely played well enough to deserve it.

As I stacked my chips I looked up to realize a couple nearby tables had come over to watch the action because a commotion had been building while we were all taking our action on the flop. I'd been so in the zone that I didn't even realize any of this until the hand was over.

It took 4 racks to go to the cage and I basically had everyone in the 1-2 section looking at me as I took the long walk over there. I could get used to that.

Foxwoods Redux

2010-02-22T15:34:00.002-05:00

I need to get down there more frequently.

Sunday afternoon I sat down at 1/2 with a full stack ($300) and left the table with $1780 at 10:30 PM. I'll do a trip recap as well. I had some very interesting and cool people at my table.

Wow.

2010-02-19T13:29:00.002-05:00

Last night I played in the $10 w/rebuys on the Cake nework.

I'm not one to grumble about bad beats, but the following chain of events is quite ridiculous. 60 get paid and I am 2nd in chips with about 45 remaining. I busted in 3 hands after this sequence. Bear in mind this is three consecutive hands which is the only reason I am posting it.

Hand 1: A guy shoves 11,000 chips UTG and it folds to me on the button. I have 59,500 in chips and snap call with KK. He has 44 and flops a 4.

Hand 2: MP raises 3X. I 3-bet with AsKs. He shoves and I snap call. He has AQ and rivers a Q. That was another 26,000 gone.

Hand 3: UTG min-raises. Someone in MP calls. I once again have AK (offsuit) and shove. UTG folds. MP calls with Ah9h and rivers a flush to eliminate me.

Some nights it just isn't meant to be.

Foxwoods Recap

2010-02-17T15:32:00.002-05:00

After not really knowing what was going on until the last minute I ended up driving down to Foxwoods very early Monday morning to play in a $400 tournament capped at 250 entrants. I think they received 244.

The level of play was probably on part with a $30 or $50 online buy-in. There were some very competent players at my table but they were also playing straight-forward enough where I put moves on them two or three times.

With the blinds at 800/1600/200 I had around 64,000 in chips.

I had 7d8d on the button and a woman who had been playing fairly tight made it 4,800 from middle position and I elected to flat. Both blinds folded and we took a flop of 2 6 4 with two diamonds. I'm obviously not going anywhere.

With 13,800 in the middle she bets out 6,500.

I tanked for about 90 seconds before announcing a raise and made it 20,500 more on top which was putting her in an all-in or fold spot and she had zero fold equity against me. She ended up thinking for about 3 or 4 minutes before folding black tens face up and asking me to show.

I flashed my 8 of diamonds and mucked the other card which made her tell me she can''t believe I played pocket 8's that way. Yeah, me neither.

I made another move later where I got someone off top pair with no kicker when I held bottom pair and a flush draw. The player, an older guy who played very tight, hemmed and hawed and then told me I must have him outkicked before folding.

My bustout hand was very standard unfortunately. And by standard I mean I took a pretty bad beat to get knocked out just shy of the money.

With the blinds at 2500/5000/600 I had gone card dead and was stuck at 12 big blinds.

UTG, a kid with a PokerStars fleece who acted like an expert but obviously didn't play higher than $20 MTT's, limped in and UTG+1 went all in for close to 20 big blinds. The UTG+1 player had a thick cajun accent and kept saying he didn't know how to play. It wasn't an act. He was pretty bad.

I looked down at QsQh and called his-all in.

The kid with the fleece told me he was laying down a monster he limped to trap someone with "just for me" because "I don't seem like I stink".

The Cajun turned over TdAd and got runner runner diamonds to knock me out. Well played, sir.

Fleece told me he had limped with Jacks. Yeah, that's a trap hand ...

I would definitely do this tournament again - you got a 20,000 starting stack with 25 minute levels and blinds began at 25/50. Unfortunately I was dead for the first four levels but the players had no issue getting into very large pots with very suspect holdings that early on so I felt like I had a large edge over the field with my cash game background and growing MTT skill set.

So, I never ended up playing in the cash games because the tournment lasted into the evening and I didn't feel like staying overnight, but I highly recommend playing anything under a $560 buy-in at Foxwoods if you are competent because you will have an edge over the field for sure.

Cake Poker Network and Foxwoods Bound

2010-02-12T15:12:00.002-05:00

I'm headed to Foxwoods for the long weekend. I'm going down there on Saturday morning and will probably come home Monday. As with my past trips I plan on staying about a mile or two down the road at a much cheaper hotel. Everything else is way overpriced for what you get.

When I go out to Vegas later this year I'll be staying in a suite with my girlfriend so she can be pampered but I don't plan on getting a mud bath or pedicure so the Hampton Inn will work for this weekend.

I think the Foxwoods Mega Stack is going on right now so I plan on sticking to the 2/5 cash games in the hopes that a lot of the tournament players hang around and donk off some money.

And the good thing about staying outside the hotel is that it allows you to hit Mohegan without feeling like a dumbass if the Foxwoods games are dry. So I like staying situated between both places for versatility.

As an aside, I think I am choosing the Cake Poker network as my cash game home. After playing a lot of hands on PStars (rock garden of regs), Full Tilt (only one notch better than PStars) and UB (decent action but not enough traffic) I am choosing PlayersOnly Poker where I will be receiving 33% rakeback and will also be participating in the pocketfives.com monthly rake race where you can earn extra bucks for being on their leaderboard for most rakeback earned in the month.

Cake seems to be a nice little network for games 3/6 NL and lower which is all I'm playing these days with 5/10 shots only taking place if the table I target has more than one bonafied fish sitting at it. That's not to say I don't think I can beat the game - I do. I think I can beat up to and including 10/20 but I have chosen a life that does not allow for lots of cash to be kept online for gambling purposes.

I have basically discovered what my yearly income should be for my poker schedule and it has become integrated into my budget.

I feel like down the road the state of poker will shift once again and more fish will come. And that is when I will adjust and play higher once more. But for now I think it's asinine for anyone to sit at 10/20 and 25/50 and swap pots with regs all day long. No one has any edge unless they are in the top 5% players in the world and I am not in that class.

When poker is finally regulated in the United States, and it will be someday, all the people who were reticent ($10 word) to deposit online when the money is held offshore will enter the poker world and the majority of them will not be good players.

Much like sports, war, and the economy there is an ebb and flow to the poker economy. The majority of success in your poker career will come down to luck and timing - cooler pots where you hope to be the one holding the nuts versus second nuts or running well deep in MTT's in the make or break spots. And so you must create your own fortune by always being aware of the state of the game, your emotions, and the emotions of your enemies.

I can't say I always do this but I do it a lot and that is why I will succeed in places where others will break even or lose.

Irony/Addiction

2010-02-09T08:48:00.003-05:00

Someone plan a Rush Poker intervention for me. I find myself not being able to stop due to how many FTP points I can earn to play the big satellite events.

The irony of me saying the games have dried up is that last night I played in a $1,000 pot and emerged the victor.

I had already logged about 2,900 hands at 1/2 and the villain and I had stacks of approximately $520 each.

From UTG he made it $10 and I bumped it to $35 on the button with red Aces. Here's the full action in all its cooler glory.

Hero (button): $517
Villain (utg): $532 (I think)

Villain raises to $10
Hero 3-bets to $35
Villain 4-bets to $110
Hero flats.

I think he's putting me on QQ and QQ only when I flat here but I could be wrong. I'm never flatting AK but I could flat KK in position to get it all in on a non-ace flop.

Flop: As Kd 7c

Villain checks. I'm putting him on AK, KK, or QQ at this point. Although with him being the one out of position I think it's weird he didn't decide to jam or fold AK and QQ so I've basically put him on KK. That being said there is never any reason to slowplay here in my opinion.

Villain checks
Hero bets $140
Villain jams
Hero snap calls, crowd goes wild.

AA vs. KK is always playing out this way on this flop obviously - but I really like my flat call on the button for partial deception because I think if I jam against a very good player he's going to release KK given the nature of Rush Poker and the depth of the stacks.

I know it's still a cooler and standard and lol obvaments but as you play deeper stack cash games it's important to time your actions and create a plan for the hand. I know if someone instantly jammed 260 bb's on me I'd lay down any hand but Aces in almost all situations so it's something to keep in mind.

How Quickly Things Change

2010-02-08T09:57:00.002-05:00

I think I'm done with Rush Poker now.

The things I had written were true at the time - fish were playing ATC, laggy late position play worked well, etc.

But I just played lengthy sessions over the weekend and the games have completely dried up. My guess is the fish who were initially drawn to it have gone busto and decided not to keep re-depositing. And now it's just a bunch of us 14/12 regs playing nothing but big hand vs. big hand pots which don't occur frequently enough to make this game worth playing. If you want to amass a lot of FTP points it's still a decent game to play but aside from that I recommend going back to the regular tables.

Highlights I'm Not Proud Of

2010-02-01T16:35:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend I played in one of those Knights Of Columbus charity poker tournaments where they had out Visa gift cards as prizes. Top 9 paid and first place was $700.

Normally I stay away from these because the players are often KoC members with no idea how to play the game and I almost feel guilty showing up. Almost.

But a friend of mine recently got his wisdom teeth removed and is unable to drink yet, so he talked me into going there with him.

He took third and I took first.

My suspicions were correct. The players ranged from bad to embarrassing. There was one other kid there who I could tell had a good grasp on the game but he busted with Queens versus Ace King around the middle stages.

At the Final Table I raised every hand and c-bet every flop. My friend was two seats to my right and would mutter before folding because as he correctly said afterwards ...

- I either fold my way to heads up or let you 3 bet me out of every pot I open.

That about sums it up. He busted with 7's versus KJ suited when his opponent flopped a flushdraw with a gutshot and hit his gutterball on the turn. Bink.

Heads up we were even in chips and it was over in 3 hands. He open shoved with 8's and I woke up with 10's. Better to be lucky, right?

At any rate, here are things I'm not proud of doing that night in no particular order.

Check raising all-in on the turn against a guy in an oxygen mask and then showing 2-7 offsuit to the table
Flatting Aces on the Button against an older woman and letting her think her flopped queen was good by calling her on every street saying stuff like, "I think this call is a bad idea."
Slowrolling a kid because he yelled "one time!" at a KoC poker tournament.
Slowrolling an old guy because he told me I take too long to act pre-flop.

I'd like to add that beers at these places only cost two quid and so much of my decision making was influenced by these beers. Still, I'm not proud. But I am $700 richer.

Full Tilt Rush Poker

2010-01-25T15:06:00.002-05:00

I have to commend Full Tilt on this one.

Horrid customer service aside their site is quickly becoming my favorite due to Rush Poker and tournament structure.

In case you still aren't familiar with Rush Poker you should head to the Full Tilt website to watch their short presentation.

Essentially it's hyper speed poker. You're dealt a hand and as soon as you fold you're warped to a new table just as a new hand is being dealt. You can single table hundreds of hands per hour this way.

Right now my strategy is to play a very LAGgy game compared to my usual TAG style of play just because of how many people are hitting the "quick fold" button. I also tend to defend my BB every time I am there just to counteract people trying to play this LAG style against me.

I'm hoping they continue to add bigger stakes the more I continue to play here as you can amass points quickly not too mention all the rakeback once can earn.

$55 MTT Hand Results

2010-01-11T08:50:00.002-05:00

Here is the way the rest of the hand played out.

Flop: T 5 4 rainbow

I bet 400 into 515 and get flatted

My initial thought process: His range of hands here is very narrow. There are several people to act behind on a somewhat coordinated board and he is not too worried about raising anyone out of the pot. 44, 55, and TT are the most likely candidates based on his MTT stats. He could have also flatted pre with AA but I would think he'd want to protect his hand against all the players behind him.

Turn: 4

I bet 800 into 1315 and he jams.

My thought process: My KK is beaten. Against a very solid player in the beginning stages I can't think of a single hand he plays this way that I beat unless he played QQ very strangely. And this I'm just hoping for.

I fold and he doesn't show but it was a +EV fold. I went on to cash in this event so all was not lost.

What's Your Play? $55 $40k Guaranteed MTT

2010-01-07T09:51:00.003-05:00

Blinds 15/30

Our stack: 4100
Villain's stack: 2900

Villain has about $100,000 in MTT winnings and I've never played with him before. OPR confirms he does very well at mid-stakes buy-ins.

UTG with KK we raise to 100
Villain flats in MP
CO flats
Button flats
SB folds
BB calls

Flop: T 5 4 rainbow

BB Checks. We bet 400 into 515.

MP villains flats and everyone else folds.

Turn: 4

What's your action here and why?

Follow-Up to $50 MTT Post

2010-01-04T12:47:00.002-05:00

In these spots (like 7-10 BB's) my typical range is this:

Pocket pairs: 66+
Suited connectors: 78s+
Ace hands: A9+

I think people spaz shove a little too light when they reach this amount of bb's. You really have to consider how light people will call you online. In low/mid-stakes I'll see someone jam 5-9 BB's with hands like A3o or 22 only to get called by something like A6, 44, KT, etc.

And while flipping is a necessity I try to do it with hands where the cards can run out well for me, like 9Ts and 89s instead of 44 and A7.

I also try to avoid shoving weaker hands like K9 and QT where you can often get called by someone holding a dominant hand like KQ, KJ, AQ, etc. Because in spots like that you will either be flipping or crushed - no one will ever call you with inferior holdings that you dominate.

The only thing I question is when to go into push/fold mode and when to start incorporating the suited connectors. Right now when I'm at 10 BB's I won't shove them. I'll just shove my strong paired and unpaired hands. Once I dip to 7 or 8 BB's I'll start shoving the mid-range suited connectors as well.

Part of me thinks I should loosen up and gamble for a final table stack so I'm going to run with that. I never really play to cash but I just don't know the correct pushing chart for like 10-20 BB's. I cut my teeth on 100-200 BB stack cash games for years so I need to step up my tournament game.

asdf

2010-01-04T10:58:00.002-05:00

Lately it feels like I'm playing poker with my cards facing up so the whole table can see them. My 3-bets are being 4-bet like 90% of the time and even when I'm doing it with AK or a big pair I'm being held over or getting sucked out on by inferior holdings.

This can be a real confidence crippler but looking over the hand histories a couple days after playing it doesn't appear I'm doing things differently based on poor results which is nice to see.

I managed to offset some of my MTT buy-ins by making a few 180 Max $3 w/rebuys final tables including two 3rd place finishes which are good for about $200 apiece.

Here's a typical hand which shows how terribad I've been running.

Blinds: 1000/2000/200 (?) I forget the antes always - I should really know these.

My Stack: 42,000
Villain: 39,000

Villain limps EP
MP Russian fish calls (playing 63% of his hands lol)
I button raise to 9,000 with KK

Villain flats (wtf?)
MP Russian fish folds

Flop: 3 8 J rainbow

Villain open jams and I snap call.

He turns over 9T suited and spikes a 7 on the river, fml.

If it wasn't a Sunday major I don't think I'd be as pissed.

$50 Turbo MTT

2009-12-30T20:48:00.003-05:00

Got moved but folded in all 13 hands at this table. Table has been very tight overall. 9 handed.

125/250/25 Level

My Stack: 2165
Villain: 3650

I push from UTG+3

What's my pushing range and if you're the Villain in the BB what is your calling range?

2010 Goals

2009-12-29T10:29:00.002-05:00

I've always been somewhat decent at setting goals and sticking to them, so here goes nothing ...

Practice better cash game table selection: This should be a no-brainer but honestly I've been lacking the patience and discipline to do this on a regular basis. Back when I was really augmenting my annual income through poker playing 2/3 NL and 3/6 NL on Bodog I would go on every waiting list and then decline any "bad seats" or tight tables. These days I'm playing some $100 NL and not treating it with respect because I feel like I should crush any table. Maybe I have a stronger skill set but rocks are rocks and you can't squeeze money from one no matter how strong you are.
Create a defined MTT schedule and stick to it: Another no-brainer but something I'll be sure to do in 2010. I plan on looking over the various tournaments I've played to see which ones I had the most success in as well as the days/times they are run. I need to trim out some of the MTT's that go late into the night because I either get tired or just quit once min-cash to spend time with my girlfriend. Plus it's not fair to her to have no idea when I'll be committed to something for hours so this will be a win-win.
Learn to play PLO: I might even look into coaching for this one. PLO is definitely the future of poker and I can observe tables and see there is still much value there but I don't have the skill set to plop down in a seat and start pot betting like a motherf'er.
Grind SnG's: I have to study up on these again but there's definitely good money to be made. Colin Moshman came out with a good book within the past couple years. I'll read that and then troll some forums to see how out of date the information may be. If anyone of you out there are SnG grinders or know one I'd really appreciate chatting about strategy since this might end up being the majority of my table hours given my schedule outside of poker.

That should do it for now. Seacrest OUT.

On Misplaying AK

2009-11-27T09:28:00.002-05:00

AKo and AKs are easily the most misplayed hands in MTTs.

I say this because even though I constantly see people donk off their stack with KQ, AQ, and AJ they are still getting close to max value for their hand - I'll talk about that some other time.

The point is that I see people constantly shove huge amounts of big blinds over a standard open when they hold AKo and AKs and you're killing the value of the hand when you do this, especially when you have position on the original raiser.

Most of the value of AKo and AKs comes in getting weaker Ace hands or even KQ to push over you.

Any other situation where you hold AK is either a flip or a cooler where you're crushed. By jamming too many big blinds pre-flop you're giving your opponent more of a chance to fold AQ, AJ, AT, and KQ. I'm mentioning the last two hands since you will definitely see people shove with them in lower buy-in tournaments.

By jamming AK you also make it easier for people to know how you play the hand and you fail to balance your 3-Betting range.

This is an advanced concept crucial for MTT success and I'll devote an entirely separate post to it, my faithful reading audience of zero.

I digress. Here's a quick example of how I will play AK late in an MTT.

1500/3000/150 (I'm guessing at the antes but it's probably close)

You: Late Position with 35 big blinds
Villain: Mid-Position with 26.5 big blinds

Villain raises to 7,500.
You ???

Time and time again I see people just jam with AK here and either get a fold or get into a flipping situation for most of their chips.

What I will do here is raise to something like 16,999 or a similar total. This accomplishes a couple things.

1. It makes my hand look like a monster and hands like 22-TT may fold, thinking they are dominated.

2. It balances my 3-betting range since I will make a similar raise with hands such as 46s, 89s, 9Ts, AA, KK, QQ, and sometimes ATC in the right spots (very read dependent obv.)

3. It may induce bad players to push bad hands. By taking the lead here and having position you're putting a lot of pressure on a weak player to make the correct decision which they rarely do. The majority of the time I will get flatted and take it down with a c-bet (or hit my A or K and stack them) or they will shove over me with something like 77+ and KQ+ in which case I'm not in bad shape at all with all the money already in the middle.

There are other tactics you can use to disguise your hand if you've been with the same opponents for a long time. Varying your 3-bet size is definitely one of them and I'm UTG+1 or UTG+2 facing a race I will consider flatting if there are several aggressive players left to act behind.

Just remember that the biggest value of AK comes from inducing weaker hands, not flipping coins. Keep experimenting with ways to induce shoves and you will probably see an improvement to your results.

Short and to the Point

2009-11-16T18:03:00.003-05:00

Want to know one of the biggest keys to success in online tournament poker?

Avoid playing out of position as much as you can. It really can't be stressed enough.

AJo and AJs UTG and UTG+1 is a fold.

KTo and KTs in the SB and BB is a fold.

It goes on and on. Tournament poker is about developing an overall strategy and then trying to hone your skills within that strategy whether it be small ball, Kill Phil style, or something in between.

But playing pots in position is paramount to success in any given style and there really is no argument against that.

Ding Ding Ding!

2009-11-02T16:24:00.002-05:00

"I don't think poker takes that much inteligence - that's something poker players tell themselves - but it does take a specialized skills that some people will never acquire or always have problems implementing."

-V, posted on http://raiseorfold.cardgrrl.com/

I'd say this is mostly accurate and seldom said.

The fact that he/she misspells intelligence and mixes up the singular/plural of 'skills' may add additional credence to this. I say this tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek, of course.

The actual poker math required at the table is 8th grade algebra and even then there are little shortcuts you can take.

Of all the poker math geniuses out there (Paul Magriel, David Sklansky and Chris Ferguson come to mind immediately) there are an equal number of players who play "by feel" or admit they don't know the math behind the game (Chad Batista, Puggy Pearson, Phil Ivey).

I could have done extensive research to make a balanced list of names but much like the Men At Work song, it's just Overkill.

Poker is more about picking up the tells and betting patterns of your opponents coupled with preventing them from picking up on yours than it is about knowing the exact odds on every street. Knowing the math won't do you much good if you can't make a bet that entices your opponents to call - see David Sklansky as an example of this.

However, you should at least know how much of a chance you stand if called even if it's just broken down into the terms "not bad", "good", or "none."

Minor Adjustments

2009-09-09T16:48:00.003-04:00

I'm not playing much poker anymore, but that doesn't mean you need to scale back!

And if that first line didn't sound like an infomercial then I don't know what does.

A blog entry I recently read alluded to its author tweaking her cash game mechanics ever-so-slightly leading to staggering results. I like to call this coincidence. Often times unless you're making severe blunders on a regular basis, no single adjustment or two will lead to a cash windfall on a short-term basis.

However, there are a few things you can do which will in fact lead to nice savings in the long run.

Quick aside: I hate the phrase "in the long run" because of poker. I also can't hear the word "sick" used in any context without cringing a little.

I digress. Here are a couple adjustments you can make as ways to save money in cash games.

Fold in the blinds more frequently. I know it's tempting to play 22, 33, and hands like 56o or 45s from the blinds but the odds are stacked against you. Not only do you need to flop a made hand or flop a big draw, but you need your opponent to come along for the ride when you're playing the hand entirely out of position.
Overcall less frequently. I see this happen way more than it should. Let's say there's a raise and a call up front and you flat on the button with 78s. If the flop makes you bottom or middle pair and the action in front is bet/call, I think you should fold. I look at it this way - one of them has you beat, and if you take the lead on the turn you're not guaranteed to be paid off by a good player so you're chasing with low expectation.
Raise the flop more frequently. Having played a lot of 1/2 NL and 2/4 NL a lot of times I'll see the original raiser call the flop, turn, and river with top pair or slightly worse only to be beaten by a monster. Sound familiar? A lot of times you can get away more cheaply by raising the flop. If your villain re-raises or flats, you should have developed enough of a read on him/her to know what this could mean so it won't take two more streets of action to know you're beaten.

It sounds like I'm advocating a fairly tight/conservative game, and I suppose I am. But if poker wisdom tells you to profit by doing the opposite of everyone else, and all these poker training sites and books are preaching endless aggression isn't it worth a shot?

I've noticed that these players are so busy focusing on being aggressive that they failed to notice I only showed up with the goods at showdown. And if they do take notice? Well then, that's when you finally work some bluffs into your game.

Next Time I'll Take a Screen Shot

2009-08-31T09:07:00.002-04:00

I was playing a few tables of 3/6 LHE this morning which is always a very juicy game. At a 6 handed table you will usually find nothing but loose/weak European or Russian players. There are a few players whose game I have respect for but I have detailed notes on how they play their hands.

Then you have one other type of player who will be there some times and when he is, the game is great. This player is the drunk/tired west coast player who has been up all night. Usually I only see this on Saturday or Sunday mornings but today there was a player from New Mexico who might be the worst player I've ever seen at a 3/6 online table.

He had a stack of about $470 and was 3-betting every hand pre-flop, calling raises and re-raises cold, and showing down with bottom pair and ace high. Of course this means he was getting paid off on every big hand and he was running like Usain Bolt.

Then the following hand took place.

UTG he raises as he'd been doing every hand. Everyone calls behind and on the Button I 3-bet with JsTs because it has great value there. Both blinds fold and everyone else just calls.

The flop is 7s 8s 9h.

Southwestern Psycho leads, UTG+2 raises, folded to me and I 3-bet. SwP caps and we both call.

The turn is Ad and the same action takes place - lead, raise, 3-bet, cap, call, call.

The river is Kd and this time it goes check, check, bet by me, call, call.

SwP had a set of nines and UTG+2 had As6s. Pretty big pot for a 3-6 game. After it was done is when the fun started in the chat box.

Him: F.ucking donkeys
Him: JT nice play fish
Him: No wonder u dont have a real stack

First, el oh el at him thinking stack size matters in a limit game. Second, I usually don't ever do something like this but it was time for me to go to work anyway. I sat out and clicked on the dealer to add more chips, then made my stack at the table $15,999. Then I sat back in.

Me: Sorry, is this better?

He left on the next hand, and so did I.

Soft Game Alert and Bodog Nostalgia

2009-08-26T11:48:00.003-04:00

This is probably old news to some.

The 2/4 and 3/6 limit hold em games on the Cake network are softer than all other poker sites. Not only is the percentage of flops seen greater on this network, but your opponents also call down with Ace high or weak hands at a far greater ratio than other sites I have played - Full Tilt, Poker Stars, and Bodog.

Note: My own Bodog experiences are about 8 months old at this point, but some of my online poker playing friends have commented that the traffic is terrible and the site is no longer worthy of any consideration due to this and their increased tournament fees/decreased guaranteed prize pools.

That's a real shame. Bodog used to be the site for all your donkey needs. In 2006 and 2007 I made a killing at 2/3 NL and 2/4 NL. I still see some of the same players kicking around at these same stakes, but for the most part the well has run dry.

Back to the Cake network.

I highly recommend the LHE games there. I haven't played 5/10 or 10/20 yet so I cannot speak to those, but I observed a 5/10 game for a bit and it played aggressively with most pots being 3-bet pre-flop so proceed with caution if you are rockish by nature.

The tournaments also have good value. The $20,000 Guaranteed is soft. My girlfriend and I decided to team up so she could ask me questions about strategy and hand selection and I think we took 13th place even though I haven't been thinking about poker lately.

The only catch to re-buy tournaments on the Cake network is the fact that no one seems to play it like a re-buy. In other words, what you'll find is that everyone takes the immediate re-buy to get to 3,000 chips and then it's played like a freezeout. This can be advantageous, though. If you decide to gamble for a stack, the other players will usually assume this is your normal playing style and you'll get paid off every time after the break.

Either that, or I really am a maniac and haven't figure it out yet.

All Done

2009-08-17T10:45:00.005-04:00

This blog will probably live on in one form or another, but I picked a weird point in my poker life to start it.

I've scaled way down in terms of both playing time and stakes when it comes to poker, and it's due to no other reason than pure boredom. While I never reached the status of being a 25/50 reg, I managed to pretty well for myself over the past few years and it's clearly time to move on to something else.

At the end of the day it's just money and I get no enjoyment out of it except for the odd Sunday major where I manage to make a deep run.

But the fact is I have lost the will to play because I'd much rather take those hours each day and spend them with my girlfriend as we continue to build up our apartment, explore the city, and try new things together.

I've always been socially introverted, cynical, and a creature of habit. She forces me to step out of my comfort zone and try different things. In a span of 8 months she's managed to change years and years worth of stubborness and reticence. And stubborn as I might be, she knows how much she's done and how much I appreciate all of it.

It would feel like an insult to her hard work and love if I wasted my time sitting at a PC every night, frittering my time away just to grind out a modest profit.

This isn't me standing on a soap box and telling other players to give it up - far from it. But I think at some point in our lives we all luck into or create a good opportunity for long-term happiness and have this decision to make.

Faced with the choice between this beautiful, funny, and smart girl who loves me unconditionally or a card game played over a computer, there isn't a choice at all.

A, each morning I wake up and tell myself to always deserve you.

And if anyone comes looking for me to play in a home game - sorry, can't. I had to see about a girl.

Where Do We Go From Here?

2009-08-10T11:32:00.002-04:00

I have really scaled back the amount of online poker I play for a couple reasons:

I also sports bet and am producing far greater profits there, which in turn requires a lot of my free time researching trends and tracking line movements, but the bigger reason is
Online poker has really dried up.

It was only a matter of time, really. I admire the business sense of people like Taylor Caby, Johnny Bax, Phil Galfond and other people who run poker training sites - but the reality is they've killed the game.

You'll notice how the majority of the people who run these training sites barely play the game anymore. They're more content to stake others and reap the profits of a site that has no overhead costs. Galfond is the only exception and he plays nosebleed PLO. Caby is all but retired, Townshend is a multi-accounting cheat, and Bax and Sheets either don't play much anymore or they play and fail to put up strong results.

A few years ago you could play $200 NL and $400 NL and crush it against donks would would stack off with top pair, weak kicker or worse.

Now it's to the point where it's borderline unprofitable to set mine because even as low as $100 NL you're finding players capable of laying down pretty good hands - not too mention everybody now knows about 3-betting light and the value of semi-bluffing hands.

I'll still play online tournaments because I have a 90% ROI on the site I choose to play at, but the value of cash games has taken a turn for the worse. There is a mathematically correct to play your hands in most situations and the more people who learn this, the less money can be won. Now it's just a game of set over set hands or Aces versus Kings AIPF. Yawn. I'll find another hobby, thanks.

If you choose to play cash games, make Pot Limit Omaha your game of choice. There is still plenty of dead money out there, but make sure you're properly bankrolled and can handle horrid swings because you will rarely get it all in the middle being more than a 55% favorite in any given hand.

Our only hope is that poker gets regulated in the United States and brings in an influx of bad players who were too scared to make accounts when it was all being run offshore, but maybe that's just a pipe dream for the mid-stakes grinder. My advice? Keep ahead of the curve.

Running Bad

2009-08-07T13:52:00.002-04:00

I have a couple theories on running bad.

The first one is that it's simple variance that happens to everyone, everywhere. Easy enough, right?

The second one is more complex. I think some people can become psychologically affected by normal variance to the point where it causes them to remain in run-bad purgatory even once the cards have started cooperating again.

An example of this would be checking a Turn you'd normally bet and missing value, or worse, letting someone get there for free, just because chasers were previously getting there even when you bet. Another example would be folding a drawing hand even when getting proper calling odds just because you haven't been getting there lately.

A lot of people will take a break from playing when they start getting cold decked. I used to be of that camp, but I'm starting to think the solution is just to keep playing. If you play professionally (or just play a lot) you're definitely in for those days when all the money goes in on the Turn with you getting the best of it and all the money being slid over to your opponents after the River card comes.

But if you're not tilting, or if you can recognize tilt and only stop playing then, why wouldn't you want to just power through it? As long as you are using sound bankroll management (I'll probably do a short post some other time about this) you will never go broke during a period of running bad. This is because you'll drop down to lower stakes if necessary to keep your risk of ruin a static number - close to zero.

And who knows how long this period of running bad could last if you limit the number of hands you play? Sure, you'll be decreasing your odds of a downswing but you're also decreasing your odds of an upswing by the same amount.

So like Tony G says, "On your bike."

Identifying Tilt

2009-08-05T10:44:00.003-04:00

The majority of money in a cash game is won, and lost, during periods of tilted play. That's just common sense.

I can't even count how many times I've been playing a normal six handed cash game online when all of a sudden the table turned maniacal after a bad beat pot.

Here are some ways to tell that you're on tilt:

You use the chatbox to question someone's play or berate them (obvious one)
You start clicking and typing bets harder than usual (semi-obvious)
You act faster than usual when action is on you (this one is more subtle so pay close attention)
You make aggressive calls (unsuited connectors from the blinds, overcalling with weakish hands like QTo, etc. Again, subtle)

You can reduce your chances of tilting using a couple different things. Gay ass Blogger won't allow me to make a second bulleted list because its interface likes to be face fucked by moose cock, so you'll have to settle for line breaks.

Music: Whatever you listen to, listen to the softer side of that genre. Listening to frenetic music from experimental and noise-rock bands will make your mind race and will affect your game.

Sleep: Get enough of it. Playing tired leads to bad decisions which leads to going on tilt because you're pissed off that you decided to play while tired.

Water: Drink it. Keeps your mind alert and water will give you a lot more energy than caffeine ever can.

Coffee: Don't drink it. The caffeine will make you jittery and it takes over two hours for it to exit your system, but only about 10 minutes to fully kick in.

In the end, though, it comes down to how you're hardwired. Some people are more even keeled than others. The key is recognizing when you tilt and having the discipline to walk away.

Have A Plan

2009-08-04T10:32:00.003-04:00

"I'm gonna outplay this guy. I'm gonna outplay this guy, this hand."

-Mitch McDermott, Rounders

Anyone who thinks like this is a fucking moron.

Yes, I know it's a movie.

I also know that I see it happen in tournaments and cash games all the time. I don't even know why. People just spaz out at random points and double or triple barrel bluff into a monster on a bad board to run a bluff - an example of a bad board to run a bluff is a really dry board like 3 7 K rainbow. If you fire and get raised or flatted, you're almost never getting floated by air at lower stakes games. This is an easy check/fold on the turn unless you ran a semi-bluff and your hand improves to the best hand or a draw to the best hand.

Yet time and time again I'll see someone double barrel or triple barrel and run into AK, KQ, or a set in these spots.

Stop overthinking things. Your opponents aren't that great. Unless you see them showdown weak hands or bluffs, they're probably value betting and value calling you all these times. You can't fucking represent what the other guy is holding if you stop and think for a minute.

It took me many online sessions at $100 NL and $200 NL to realize there aren't as many crazy bluffers out there as you think. The online world is mostly filled with call stations these days. Keep that in mind and you'll do just fine.

Have a plan for your raises and bets - if you stop and ask yourself what you'll do on the turn or river if you raise and get called and can't come up with a good anwer, chances are you shouldn't make that raise or bet to begin with.

You're Not 3 Betting Enough

2009-08-01T15:12:00.002-04:00

I know for a fact you aren't. If you were, you'd have better success.

To be successful at online MTT's you need to ramp up your aggression more. This means 3 betting hands that aren't in the top 2%.

A good place to start is 3 betting suited connectors against a late position raiser when you're in the CO or have the Button. You also need more than 30 BB's to do this, because raise/folding with a 30 BB stack means you're retarded and do not deserve to ever win anything. Ever.

Hands like 89s and JTs flop well and you'll have position against your opponent for the remainder of the hand, which will rarely last past the flop unless your opponent connects in a big way.

Remember, many opponents will play aggressively pre-flop but a staggeringly low number will continue to play aggressively on the flop and turn.

Important Note: You must also know your opponent here. If you do this every time against every type of player, you've become The Spewtard.

MTT's aren't bingo like every loser likes to claim. There's a degree of skill, a degree of calculated risk, and a degree of luck. If you put skill and reading ability at the forefront, you'll seldom find yourself in more than just one or two spots where you need to "get lucky".

Step 2 Toward Not Being A Tournament Donkey

2009-07-29T11:27:00.002-04:00

Stop flatting with small and medium pocket pairs to set mine when you're not getting the correct odds.

I see this all the time.

Both you and your opponent need at least 30 BB's in order for you to set mine in a tournament. This means that after the early stages, you're rarely in a spot where flatting is correct since most of our tournament lives are spent in the 10 BB to 20 BB range.

The fact that someone flatted ahead of you doesn't mean it's okay for you to flat, either. If you think back to previous tournaments you can probably remember how you always seemed to fold to a pre-flop shove or fold to a large c-bet after trying to catch a set with your 66, 77, 88, etc.

You can't do the same incorrect thing every time and expect different results.

30+ big blinds, no exceptions. Anything less late in a tournament is a shove/fold decision based on your reads.

Step 1 Toward Not Being A Tournament Donkey

2009-07-29T10:19:00.002-04:00

Tighten up in early position during the early stages of the tournament.

You should only be raising AQ+ and pocket pairs from early position. I see so many players raising or limping things like 89s, JT0, KJs ... don't. You're not good enough to play these hands out of position and they simply don't have a lot of value in these spots. Re-read that last sentence until it sticks.

If you limp them, you'll often be faced with a raise behind you and now you're stuck playing a drawing hand out of position which defeats the purpose of playing a drawing hand to begin with. If you raise with them, you'll either be flatted and not know where you stand or you'll be 3-bet by better hands.

When say 'the early stages of the tournament' I usually mean all levels before antes come into play.

Anyone who reads this and follows it is guaranteed to bleed fewer chips during the early levels.

Small Stakes Final Tables

2009-07-28T17:45:00.003-04:00

From my somewhat limited experience, there are three types of players at the final table of a small stakes MTT:

The Nit: Keeps looking at the lobby to see how much each pay jump is while folding until he gets AA or KK.
The Spewtard: Read somewhere that being aggressive at the final table is good - thinks that means raising every time it gets to him but folding when faced with resistance.
Me: Good player who Raises The Nit and 3-Bets The Spewtard

I played the $10,000 Guaranteed w/Rebuys last night and scooped 5th place for about $550.

The hands down worst player at the table ran like a Kenyan in the Boston marathon, picking up big pair after big pair and holding every time.

The Spewtard was two spots to my right which meant I easily stayed afloat by defending my BB and 3-Betting his late position raises. I only had to fold once to a 4 bet shove from the SB after I had 3-bet on the button, and he showed Aces (surprise, surprise).

Unfortunately it was not meant to be, because our UTG Kenyan min-raised and I 3-Bet for about 2.5x more with KhKd. He flatted and the flop came Jack high, all spades. He checked, I jammed, and he time banked (lol) before calling with AdKs and proceeded to hit his flush on the river.

So it goes.

There's so much dead money in these tournaments that if you can reach the final 12 or so and have 10+ BB's you're almost guaranteed to stand a chance at winning the whole thing. That sounds like an obvious statement, but it's one that holds a lot less truth in higher stakes MTT's.

Just pay very close attention once you get there. There will be at least two or three players folding every hand to make the pay jumps and you'd better take advantage of that or else I will.

Intro

2009-07-28T10:29:00.002-04:00

Bonjour. Hola. Guten Tag. Hiya!

I play poker on Players Only Poker under the screen name FkCoolers. This is my blog.

How is this different from the thousands of other poker blogs out there? It probably isn't. What it will contain are interesting hands with my thought process, thoughts on different players I run into, thoughts on different hands I see played in tournaments, plus some random non-poker related shit in between.

What it won't contain are thinly veiled brag posts and/or bad beat stories because no one cares about your bad beat stories.

I won't pull any punches, either. If I sucked I'll say it. If you suck I'll say that, too. Chances are both of those are going to be true on many occasions.

That's it for now. Next time I write something it will contain substance.