It’s been a while. I’ve been really busy over the past two months with Thanksgiving, a trip to Vegas, group projects, finals, and now Christmas. During which I was having my usual swings in poker.
I guess I’ll start with the Vegas trip. I headed out with Matt, although we didn’t time our trip very well. We headed out during all the huge fires in California, but we got pretty lucky. We didn’t have to detour at all on the way there or back, although some of the freeways we used got shutdown while we were there. I have to admit, sometimes I run good at life.
We ended up staying at the New Orleans, since we had a comped room there. They didn’t have any good sized games there, so I didn’t play much the first night. The next day, I headed out to the strip to hit up the bigger casinos there. I started with the Venetian, but didn’t end up going anywhere else
I played a tournament at the Venetian and busted out relatively early when I lost a lot of my stack against a player who I didn’t realize was quite good. He made an extremely good call on an interesting hand.
The blinds are 50/100, and he has about 25k in chips. I cover with almost 33k.
I open UTG+1 to 275, and I get called in the small blind by the good player.
The flop is Ad Kc Th. He checks, I bet 350, he raises to 900, and I call.
The turn is a 2d, he bets 1200, I raise to 3000 and he calls again.
The river is an Ah. He checks, and I bet 5000.
He calls me with KT.
I was very surprised. I didn’t think he was good enough to call with a counterfeited two pair there, but I hadn’t been playing with him for very long. He wasn’t a calling station at all. He was just good. I thought about for hours, figured out his thought process and then decided I probably shouldn’t have bluffed against this guy.
I never have three aces there. It’s a straight, full house or nothing. I should’ve thought about it longer myself, but I was pretty sure the river card bricked him/was a bad card given his physical reaction to it. However that doesn’t mean he can’t still call.
Can’t see why? After all it’s only a pair of kings. I’ll go into a detailed process of what I think his thought process is.
When I raise preflop in early position, I personally don’t think his call with KTo out of position is very good, but it’s not terrible either. It really depends on how good your opponent is, and he doesn’t really have any reason to assume I’m a good player, other than I have a big stack.
When the flop comes out AKT rainbow, your first thought should be how to maximize value vs. AQ, while not getting stacked by AK. That’s a harder task than it first appears, because it can be very hard to distinguish which hand I have on the early streets, and by the later streets, you might be pot committed with two pair, to look up a large, but not huge bet compared to the pot size. This final bet could be a significant percentage of your chip stack, and it could cripple your chances of being a big stack for the length of the tournament.
Anyways, he flops bottom two pair and goes for the check raise. That’s standard, as it obtains solid value out of most hands while protecting your still vulnerable hand. Bottom two is up against 5 out draws from top pair immediately, and also has to dodge running board pairs. Regardless it’s quite strong, so check raising is a good way to get value. When I call, his hand range for me should be most aces, probably with a gutshot draw, and maybe two pairs, sets and the broadway straight. I might float with two random cards here, but that would be pretty rare. It’s what I did though lol. Gutshot straight draw + backdoor flush draw FTL!
So when the deuce of diamonds hits the turn, it’s a pretty big brick. Only a backdoor flush draw improved. (I had clubs, not diamonds.) So when he bets, and I raise, I’m repping a HUGE hand now. Two pair at least. I never have just AQ or AJ here. Why would I raise with huge stacks into a hand that he is clearly saying is a strong holding? I’ll never get called by worse. So I basically have to have AT, AK, KT, QJ, AA, KK, or TT. That’s not too many hands and since he has KT, I’m basically saying I have AA or QJ, as all the other combinations are somewhat discounted by his own cards. His call here is still somewhat questionable versus an unknown player as most unknown simply aren’t capable of making a move this advanced, but he may call just to see if I give up and showdown a bluff or if I am some terrible player who raises just a bare ace here.
When the board pairs the Ace, my first thought was great, now I can legitimately give a ton of hands a huge scare card. However, in retrospect, the only change is that a straight now loses to a set, and I don’t think a straight would fold the river for a 5k bet, even though it is now only a bluff catcher, or maybe owning someone who value bets three aces her.
This is the important part for him. When I bet 5000, he has about 3.5:1 odds to see if I’m bluffing. On the river, I can’t have just three aces unless I’m terrible and would raise the turn with AK AJ. I could have AT, AK, or maybe even A2, all of which would probably play similarly. I could have TT, or KK, but those hands might’ve 3balled (3bet) the flop, which somewhat discounts them here. However, if I had a bluff… I would probably play it exactly the same way.
And that’s all he needs to know. He makes the call and I show down J8c. Nice hand sir.
I make all of my money back and then some playing the 2/5 game at the Venetian. At 6PM, Matt and I went to the new show called The Real Deal at the Venetian. The only poker based show on the strip you can actually play with the live pros which is sick. It’s pretty neat, although from the perspective of a poker mindset, the game setup is basically just a crapshoot on who gets luckiest. But whatever, it’s still cool. I watched Jen Harman suck out on Eli Elezra’s AA with the 95c. Definitely seems like a role reversal lol.
I bought a Gucci wallet at the Forum in Caesar’s Palace. $250? Wow, I am so good at lighting money on fire. But I really needed a new wallet, and I had money burning a hole in my pocket. To be fair I don’t do stuff like that often.
Back in L.A. I’m back to my usual stuff. Play poker live, online, at home games and so on. Usual swings, with some interesting occurrences.
I got invited to a home game in Cypress by Gianni, one of my friends from LMU. I brought Mike along, just to find out two interesting things.
First, they play dealers choice. I didn’t know that, and Mike only knows how to play No Limit Hold’Em and Stud.
Second, apparently Omaha Hi, is also played No Limit, in some circles, despite the popularity of Pot Limit Omaha.
I cleaned up the game because I’m a much stronger Omaha player than most of the players in the games. I also won a big hand vs Gianni where I made a straight with 76s vs his JJ. It wasn’t all good, since I also made a HUGE laydown in Omaha, which was wrong. =/ My reads are usually right though.
One night, I was playing at the Hollywood Park big game, which is $5/$10 blind, $500 minimum buyin with no cap buyin. I was up about $500-800, when the game started to break. We were 4 handed and I was about to leave, when a mega fish sat down. He didn’t actually say this, but I’m guessing he is worth tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Gino had his own posse, seemed extremely self confidant, (but not arrogant) and seemed brand new to poker. I think he was being entirely honest when he said he just lost $100,000 in blackjack and wanted to try his hand at poker for the first time.
Gino bought in for $2,000 after asking the guy on his right how much he bought in for. I knew he was either the most amazing hustler or he was just a huge fish, when on the 4th hand, he decided to open shove $2k into a $40 pot with 3 opponents. With bottom pair. It was at that time, I decided I had better stick around for a while.
A bit later I get QQ, he limped in, I raised to $100 and he calls me. Normally a 10 big blind raise is a very big raise, but I know he doesn’t know that, and I want to play heads up with position on him. He calls and we take the flop heads up. It comes out J62 rainbow, and he checks to me. I bet $400 and he calls. The turn is another 6. He checks again, and I bet $800 this time, and he moves all in on me. I hate it, but I have to call with my overpair as there is so much money in the pot I have to call because sometimes he’ll have Jx, or some random bluff. He turns over A6 for trips and wins a $4k pot. =/ On the other hand, this hand practically proved to me that he is simply a bad player, for no hustler would ever commit so much money in a spot they are clearly beat. While most hustlers aren’t very good, that’s the kind of mistake only true beginners make. They don’t connect the size of the bet with the strength of the hand, and in doing so find themselves constantly winning small pots and losing big ones. Gino is a smart man though, and he gets a lot better throughout the session, although by the end he is still terrible and severely outclassed.
I’m sitting on his direct left, and I notice when he holds his cards, sometimes he flashes them to me. There are two schools of thought on this. The first is that revealing that you can see their cards is an ethically good move and having a reputation that you won’t take advantage of this kind of stuff will help you get action in the future from people who know you play straight up. There is also the value of simply making the most ethical move.
On the other hand you are sacrificing immediate gain for future earnings. If you never play with these people again, your choice to take the high way will cost you money. Normally I tell people that I can see their cards, but if my opponent is going to make me make decisions for thousands of dollars on nearly every hand, I want to get every edge I can.
Funny how life works sometimes. Maybe it’s karma, but that information ends up costing me. A bit later, he looks at his cards and I see the three of diamonds. I have AQ myself, and he limps in. I limp behind trying to keep him in and see if I can get him to make a big shove somewhere. The flop comes out K Q 7 two spades and he checks. I check it back. The turn is a 8, and now he open shoves. It’s $1800 to me and now I have to decide whether he has a King as his second hole card. I think about it for a long time, and decide there is a good chance he could be bluffing again, and I call.
He has K3. I just got owned.
Gino gets me again when he flops a full house and I turn a straight. =/
He ends up winning nearly $10,000, and walks out really happy. I leave at the same time stuck five grand. “On any given day, any amateur can beat any pro, no matter how much better one plays than the other.” (paraphrased) Poker is such a sick game.
I won $7k getting 3rd in a $10 rebuy, so I won all of it back later in the same week. Shrugs, as long as I’m in the black at the end of the month right? I’m pretty good about not letting a single bad day get to me.
Jeff has been playing me heads up and is running super hot against me. He also plays good and possibly better than I do, which isn’t making it any easier. To make it worse, he even runs good against me in games where I KNOW I have an edge, like when I host three card poker as the house versus him. At least I’m losing it to a friend. He’ll give me a chance to win it back too.
I’m playing 100nl online right now, even though I’m rolled for higher. I’m thinking about playing 400nl by the time January rolls around. We’ll see. I’ll talk to John and see what he thinks. Speaking of John, his 21st is coming up. I can’t wait, cause the whole group is going to Vegas. It’s gonna be awesome. John says he plans to spend ten grand. LOL WTF, that’s so ridiculous. It’s gonna be a blast. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better lately too, so I hope I have a solid takedown while I’m out there. I might be the only one playing poker, but whatever.
I had wanted to write a strategy post as a kind of Christmas present, but it’s not happening. Maybe later.
I’ll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Monthly Reports x2 - November and December
Online Cash Games:
November: -$541.05
December: -$473.85
YTD: -$3,014.42
Onine Tournaments:
November: -$1,538.70
December: $6,505.38
YTD: +$7,640
Live Cash Games:
November: $750
December: -$4,100
YTD: +$2,353
Live Tournament Poker:
November: -$550
December: $0
YTD: -$1,435
Net for poker:
November: -$1,879.75
December: $1,931.53
YTD: +$5,863.08
Stakes
November: -$380
YTD: -$2,571.81
Total Net for the months: -$328.22
YTD: +$5,238.08
So I've put up a less than stellar performance lately. I've put a lot of time into poker and don't have much to show for it. I do feel like I haven't playing great, and I'm not totally focused on poker. I've been massively busy with school and other stuff. Still, over the entire year I've turned a profit, gotten better and had fun. It could be worse. I could be down money.
I'll see you next year.
Bryce
November: -$541.05
December: -$473.85
YTD: -$3,014.42
Onine Tournaments:
November: -$1,538.70
December: $6,505.38
YTD: +$7,640
Live Cash Games:
November: $750
December: -$4,100
YTD: +$2,353
Live Tournament Poker:
November: -$550
December: $0
YTD: -$1,435
Net for poker:
November: -$1,879.75
December: $1,931.53
YTD: +$5,863.08
Stakes
November: -$380
YTD: -$2,571.81
Total Net for the months: -$328.22
YTD: +$5,238.08
So I've put up a less than stellar performance lately. I've put a lot of time into poker and don't have much to show for it. I do feel like I haven't playing great, and I'm not totally focused on poker. I've been massively busy with school and other stuff. Still, over the entire year I've turned a profit, gotten better and had fun. It could be worse. I could be down money.
I'll see you next year.
Bryce
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monthly Report - October
Online Cash Games:
October: -$25.15
YTD: -$1,999.52
Onine Tournaments:
October: -$717.5
YTD: +$2,673.32
Live Cash Games:
October: -$7,180
YTD: +$5,703
Live Tournament Poker:
October: -$880
YTD: -$885
Net for poker:
October: -$7,840.15
YTD: +$5,811.30
Stakes: $245
October: $245
YTD: -$2,191.81
Total Net for the month: -$7,595.15
YTD: +$5,566.30
Comments on October: Worst month of my life, I think. Definitely had the worst week of my life. Dropped about $13,000.
My biggest mistake was playing wayyyyyyyyy outta my bankroll.
I bought some more books.
One of a Kind, The Professor, The Banker and The Suicide King: about $40
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
October: -$25.15
YTD: -$1,999.52
Onine Tournaments:
October: -$717.5
YTD: +$2,673.32
Live Cash Games:
October: -$7,180
YTD: +$5,703
Live Tournament Poker:
October: -$880
YTD: -$885
Net for poker:
October: -$7,840.15
YTD: +$5,811.30
Stakes: $245
October: $245
YTD: -$2,191.81
Total Net for the month: -$7,595.15
YTD: +$5,566.30
Comments on October: Worst month of my life, I think. Definitely had the worst week of my life. Dropped about $13,000.
My biggest mistake was playing wayyyyyyyyy outta my bankroll.
I bought some more books.
One of a Kind, The Professor, The Banker and The Suicide King: about $40
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Progress Report #24 -Tilt Hard Indeed
So basically, this has been the worst week of my life. Up until Monday, October was going pretty well for me. But now, I'm in a shitty spot.
This has been a mix of really bad luck and really, really bad play.
None of this counts online which hasn't been going stellar either.
Monday: -$510 in tournaments
Tuesday: -$5,000 at 5-10. Got coolered for a $7,000 pot and played like shit after that.
Thursday: -$255 in a tournament. -$2000 at 5-10
Friday: -$1,000 playing 50-100 limit hold'em, -$150 at 5-5
Saturday: Won $1,500 OMG
Sunday: -$550 in a tourney, -$500 at 25-50 limit hold'em , -$4,000 at 5/10, lost two coinflips for about 2k, got caught bluffing for about 2k
Overall net: -$12,465
I feel like shooting myself. (Not literally)
My bankroll has been obliterated. I played games I was underrolled for and paid the price.
I have a bunch of money lent out, that I plan to start collecting on. I probably have close to $4,000 in outstanding debt.
I'm gonna take a break from poker until I collect on some of that. Time to go knocking on doors and blowing out people's kneecaps.
I won't see you across the felt, (for a while.)
Bryce
This has been a mix of really bad luck and really, really bad play.
None of this counts online which hasn't been going stellar either.
Monday: -$510 in tournaments
Tuesday: -$5,000 at 5-10. Got coolered for a $7,000 pot and played like shit after that.
Thursday: -$255 in a tournament. -$2000 at 5-10
Friday: -$1,000 playing 50-100 limit hold'em, -$150 at 5-5
Saturday: Won $1,500 OMG
Sunday: -$550 in a tourney, -$500 at 25-50 limit hold'em , -$4,000 at 5/10, lost two coinflips for about 2k, got caught bluffing for about 2k
Overall net: -$12,465
I feel like shooting myself. (Not literally)
My bankroll has been obliterated. I played games I was underrolled for and paid the price.
I have a bunch of money lent out, that I plan to start collecting on. I probably have close to $4,000 in outstanding debt.
I'm gonna take a break from poker until I collect on some of that. Time to go knocking on doors and blowing out people's kneecaps.
I won't see you across the felt, (for a while.)
Bryce
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Monthly Report - September
Online Cash Games:
September: -$973.70
YTD: -$1,974.37
Onine Tournaments:
September: -$215
YTD: +$3,390.82
Live Cash Games:
September: +$4,086
YTD: +$12,883
Live Tournament Poker:
September: -$2,045
YTD: -$5
Net for poker:
September: +$852.3
YTD: +$13,651.45
Stakes: -$200
September: -$200
YTD: -$2,436.81
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month: +$652.3
YTD: +$11,414.64
I decided that as long as I keep an accurate log of where I’m going to play, it’s a built in record of my trip expenses.
Comments on September: I killed it in Vegas, but got absolutely killed at the beginning of the month. I played too many expensive live tournaments and ran bad. W/e.
I bought a bunch of books.
Elements of Poker: $37.12
What Every Body is Saying, Read'Em and Reap, and Ace on the River: $44.33
Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'em 29.95
Pot-Limit Omaha Poker $14.16
I finished most of them. They are quite good for the most part. I definitely needed to work on my non technical game, and a lot of these books are helping me with that.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
September: -$973.70
YTD: -$1,974.37
Onine Tournaments:
September: -$215
YTD: +$3,390.82
Live Cash Games:
September: +$4,086
YTD: +$12,883
Live Tournament Poker:
September: -$2,045
YTD: -$5
Net for poker:
September: +$852.3
YTD: +$13,651.45
Stakes: -$200
September: -$200
YTD: -$2,436.81
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month: +$652.3
YTD: +$11,414.64
I decided that as long as I keep an accurate log of where I’m going to play, it’s a built in record of my trip expenses.
Comments on September: I killed it in Vegas, but got absolutely killed at the beginning of the month. I played too many expensive live tournaments and ran bad. W/e.
I bought a bunch of books.
Elements of Poker: $37.12
What Every Body is Saying, Read'Em and Reap, and Ace on the River: $44.33
Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'em 29.95
Pot-Limit Omaha Poker $14.16
I finished most of them. They are quite good for the most part. I definitely needed to work on my non technical game, and a lot of these books are helping me with that.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Progress Report #23 - HORSE and No Limit Hold'Em
Short post today. (relatively)
I played an Omaha 8 or better tournament the other day. A small buyin, only $5.50.
Jeff played too. I ran pretty good and made it to the final table handily. We were down to 3 handed when I got disconnected from the internet. Time Warner had an outage.
Bad timing right? At least it wasn't HU like vs that other guy a while ago.
I took down about $100 for that.
On Monday I went to Hollywood Park and played 20/40 stud with a half kill. I killed that too. Won about a dime, but lost around $400-500 in hold'em before I sat down at stud. As long as I'm up on the day right? I hadn't played stud in a while so I asked Jeff about some of the hands. This is probably the most interesting hand.
A quick note about stud. The cards in the parenthesis are the hole cards, and going left to right are the cards on my board. So the left most card is my door card, and then 4th street, 5th, and 6th. The 7th card is dealt face down. Stud is also a limit game, meaning the amount anyone can bet at any given time is set. On the 3rd card, a.k.a. 3rd street, and 4th street there is a $20 bet, and on 5th, 6th and 7th street, it is a $40 bet. Despite it sounding like a bigger game than 5/10 no limit hold'em, it's actually a smaller game.
A kill means that when someone wins a pot X big, the stakes for the next pot go up. In this case the stakes go up to 30/60 since its half again as big. Hence a half kill.
We are playing a kill pot. I'm not 100% sure on the suits but I know if it was like 3 tone or 2 tone.
The bring in is on my left. He posts $5 with a 2 showing.
Weak tighty calls with Qc up.
Bad short stack fish raises with 7d up.
Mediocre player calls with something up (not a scary card) 5 maybe?
I have (8h 8s)Th and reraise to $60.
The bring in folds (He is a teacher at LMU apparently. More on that later.)
(X X)Qc calls two bets lol.
(X X) 7d puts the remainder in. It's $75 total.
(X X) 5x calls.
I can't reraise, so I call.
(X X) Qc 2s
(X X) 7d Ah (all in)
(X X) 5x Jx
(8s 8h) Th 7s
It checks around. I declined to bet into such a bad board.
(X X) Qc 2s 5c
(X X) 7d Ah X (all in)
(X X) 5x Jx X
(8s 8h) Th 7s Ts
I bet out with my two pair. Qc calls.
(X X) Qc 2s 5c 9c
(X X) 7d Ah X X(all in)
(8d 8h) Th 7s Ts Kd
I bet again and get raised. Uglyyyyyyyyyy. I don't think Mr. Weak tighty raises a worse hand. I know I have 4 outs to a boat, since none of them came on the board, so I call one more bet.
River 8c.
Lol.
My hand (88) T 7 T K (8)
I check, he thinks then checks behind. I wanted to c/r there, but he didn't give me the chance.
I table my boat and scoop the pot. He had a flush.
I run good.
So the teacher teaches Math at LMU apparently. He might join us in our home games. We'll have to see. He seems quite solid, and we both came up a lot at stud.
Yesterday, I played $100nl deep online with Winston and John. The blinds were $0.50/$1. John and I sat down first and got the table started. It was a CRAZY night. Wow John decided he was going to outplay me. Now you get to see the hand histories. Note my stack size each hand.
We were playing a pretty normal HU match at first. This is when it started to get crazy.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265409
Step 2 to making John dump 10 buyins at 100nl.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265425
It's not hard to outplay a calling station. Just valuebet.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265437
Honestly this hand I was gonna c/c down with Ace high since that was a good flop. But actually hitting the Ace and then seeing 4 diamonds roll off probably means I should fold, since John is definitely capable of valuebetting any hand that can beat a pair of Aces. He probably thought I wouldn't fold an Ace (he was right as you can see), and would valuebet super thin there. In retrospect, I think this was an easy fold.
Check/call river or bet out? Not sure here. John said he had an 8.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265466
It's hard to outplay a calling station.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265480
Honestly, I dunno what I was think this hand. I just really had a sick gut feeling I should call. My initial thought was actually to 4bet preflop, and then call a 5bet shove. I dunno what the right line is here. We've reached the point where our cards matter less than what level we're thinking on.
This hand is just flat out hilarious. I snap called his shove.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3262947
Winston finally sits down and I start taking his money too.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265511
John said he put me exactly on the hand I had, and then shoved. LOL
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265515
This one was kinda wierd. I'm not really sure what to make of it. If he bets the turn I'm in a pretty sick spot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265521
This is one of the few times I actually folded a pair to John. I'm not really sure if I should call or not, its super marginal. I did valuebet really thin, since I fully expected to get looked up by Ace high or even worse. I also thought he might bluff and value raise this too. I might've been better off c/c ing.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265528
This one was bad. I should've gone with my read and folded, but I thought this could be a really good spot for John to make a bluff raise.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265539
My strategy for Hold'Em is so simple.
RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN GOOOOOOOOOOOD
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265551
Run Like The Sun
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265561
WTF I get no respect.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265565
This one is kinda interesting. I don't think John had it (not that I ever did), but like I honestly think if I flat/3bet, he might 4bet me with complete air. I don't know if I can call that. Flatting twice seems horrendous. I think I have to fold.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265574
I bought a bunch of books lately.
Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo
Read'Em and Reap by Joe Navarro (and Hellmuth I guess)
What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro (He is ex-FBI interrogator I think)
Pot Limit Omaha by Jeff Hwang
Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein.
And I still have to read for school too. Lol.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
I played an Omaha 8 or better tournament the other day. A small buyin, only $5.50.
Jeff played too. I ran pretty good and made it to the final table handily. We were down to 3 handed when I got disconnected from the internet. Time Warner had an outage.
Bad timing right? At least it wasn't HU like vs that other guy a while ago.
I took down about $100 for that.
On Monday I went to Hollywood Park and played 20/40 stud with a half kill. I killed that too. Won about a dime, but lost around $400-500 in hold'em before I sat down at stud. As long as I'm up on the day right? I hadn't played stud in a while so I asked Jeff about some of the hands. This is probably the most interesting hand.
A quick note about stud. The cards in the parenthesis are the hole cards, and going left to right are the cards on my board. So the left most card is my door card, and then 4th street, 5th, and 6th. The 7th card is dealt face down. Stud is also a limit game, meaning the amount anyone can bet at any given time is set. On the 3rd card, a.k.a. 3rd street, and 4th street there is a $20 bet, and on 5th, 6th and 7th street, it is a $40 bet. Despite it sounding like a bigger game than 5/10 no limit hold'em, it's actually a smaller game.
A kill means that when someone wins a pot X big, the stakes for the next pot go up. In this case the stakes go up to 30/60 since its half again as big. Hence a half kill.
We are playing a kill pot. I'm not 100% sure on the suits but I know if it was like 3 tone or 2 tone.
The bring in is on my left. He posts $5 with a 2 showing.
Weak tighty calls with Qc up.
Bad short stack fish raises with 7d up.
Mediocre player calls with something up (not a scary card) 5 maybe?
I have (8h 8s)Th and reraise to $60.
The bring in folds (He is a teacher at LMU apparently. More on that later.)
(X X)Qc calls two bets lol.
(X X) 7d puts the remainder in. It's $75 total.
(X X) 5x calls.
I can't reraise, so I call.
(X X) Qc 2s
(X X) 7d Ah (all in)
(X X) 5x Jx
(8s 8h) Th 7s
It checks around. I declined to bet into such a bad board.
(X X) Qc 2s 5c
(X X) 7d Ah X (all in)
(X X) 5x Jx X
(8s 8h) Th 7s Ts
I bet out with my two pair. Qc calls.
(X X) Qc 2s 5c 9c
(X X) 7d Ah X X(all in)
(8d 8h) Th 7s Ts Kd
I bet again and get raised. Uglyyyyyyyyyy. I don't think Mr. Weak tighty raises a worse hand. I know I have 4 outs to a boat, since none of them came on the board, so I call one more bet.
River 8c.
Lol.
My hand (88) T 7 T K (8)
I check, he thinks then checks behind. I wanted to c/r there, but he didn't give me the chance.
I table my boat and scoop the pot. He had a flush.
I run good.
So the teacher teaches Math at LMU apparently. He might join us in our home games. We'll have to see. He seems quite solid, and we both came up a lot at stud.
Yesterday, I played $100nl deep online with Winston and John. The blinds were $0.50/$1. John and I sat down first and got the table started. It was a CRAZY night. Wow John decided he was going to outplay me. Now you get to see the hand histories. Note my stack size each hand.
We were playing a pretty normal HU match at first. This is when it started to get crazy.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265409
Step 2 to making John dump 10 buyins at 100nl.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265425
It's not hard to outplay a calling station. Just valuebet.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265437
Honestly this hand I was gonna c/c down with Ace high since that was a good flop. But actually hitting the Ace and then seeing 4 diamonds roll off probably means I should fold, since John is definitely capable of valuebetting any hand that can beat a pair of Aces. He probably thought I wouldn't fold an Ace (he was right as you can see), and would valuebet super thin there. In retrospect, I think this was an easy fold.
Check/call river or bet out? Not sure here. John said he had an 8.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265466
It's hard to outplay a calling station.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265480
Honestly, I dunno what I was think this hand. I just really had a sick gut feeling I should call. My initial thought was actually to 4bet preflop, and then call a 5bet shove. I dunno what the right line is here. We've reached the point where our cards matter less than what level we're thinking on.
This hand is just flat out hilarious. I snap called his shove.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3262947
Winston finally sits down and I start taking his money too.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265511
John said he put me exactly on the hand I had, and then shoved. LOL
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265515
This one was kinda wierd. I'm not really sure what to make of it. If he bets the turn I'm in a pretty sick spot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265521
This is one of the few times I actually folded a pair to John. I'm not really sure if I should call or not, its super marginal. I did valuebet really thin, since I fully expected to get looked up by Ace high or even worse. I also thought he might bluff and value raise this too. I might've been better off c/c ing.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265528
This one was bad. I should've gone with my read and folded, but I thought this could be a really good spot for John to make a bluff raise.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265539
My strategy for Hold'Em is so simple.
RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN GOOOOOOOOOOOD
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265551
Run Like The Sun
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265561
WTF I get no respect.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265565
This one is kinda interesting. I don't think John had it (not that I ever did), but like I honestly think if I flat/3bet, he might 4bet me with complete air. I don't know if I can call that. Flatting twice seems horrendous. I think I have to fold.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3265574
I bought a bunch of books lately.
Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo
Read'Em and Reap by Joe Navarro (and Hellmuth I guess)
What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro (He is ex-FBI interrogator I think)
Pot Limit Omaha by Jeff Hwang
Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein.
And I still have to read for school too. Lol.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Progress Report #22 - Crazy game at the Hustler.
I sat down at 5/5 at the Hustler on Monday.
Here's a quick timeline
4pm - Let the games begin
Sit down at 6/12 limit hold'em while waiting for 5/5. I lose about a $100, which I'm still not sure if that's because I'm bad or ran bad. I'm not excellent at limit hold'em but my opponents seemed even worse. I moved to 5/5 and quickly won my money back and then some.
5pm - May the force be with you?
I'm up a few hundred dollars. Jerry (Seat 8) is getting heckled by the floor because he has assembled a unique structure (?) made out of his chips. I didn't see the issue, he knew exactly how much it was. I told him that if it came down to it, I would make sure to bet exactly $364 and he could just switch seats with me.
A closer inspection reveals Yoda is on top of his stack. No wonder he kept winning pots. Rob got a good laugh out of this one.
Yoda: Three of Diamonds on the river, the force tells me. Call you must!
Nothing special happens for a while, I steal a few pots from the tight pretty solid guy on my right. He is named Goran (?) and he is Serbian. Very nice guy, he's lived here for 18 years.
Two guys bust and another guy leaves, claiming the game is too tight. He left about 5 minutes too soon.
6PM: The game gets good.
I'm up about $500, and then two manaics sit down. A fish I've played with before sits down as well, and then an unknown sits down in seat 1. He quickly proves he's another fish.
Table breakdown.
Seat 1: Fishy unknown middle aged guy (FG)
Seat 2: Goran, solid tag, has about $1k in front of him.
Seat 3: Maniac 1 has tons of money. He is giving seat 6 money. Literally. He bought both of them in. (M1)
Seat 4: Me
Seat 5: uh.... Sorry forgot your name. Plays tight, and plays ok.
Seat 6: Maniac 2, also a station. He never folds, but also will go randomly aggro? Friends with seat 3. (M2)
Seat 7: Rock
Seat 8: Jerry at first, a rock replaces him later.
Seat 9: Fishy lady (FL)
Maniac 1 is playing 95/75/1
Maniac 2 is playing 85/20/0.5
Fishy lady is 60/5/0
Fishy unknown is 50/10/2.5
For those unused to stats, the first number means the percentage of hands they play. The second number is the number of hands they raise preflop, and the third number is aggression. Aggression is measured by the amount they bet and raise divided by how often they check and call. Generally an aggresion level of 3+ is considered aggresive, 1-3 is semi aggresive, and less than 1 is passive.
To give you an idea just how bad M1 and M2, M1 makes it $35 utg, M2 calls and then some others call.
The flop is 7d 6d 2d.
M2 bets $20, M1 raises to $200, M2 shoves for $600.
M2: I have two pairs. Again.
He always says he has two pairs.
M1: I can't fold. Even if you have two pairs.
Me: Do you even have a diamond?
M1 (with a sneer): Of course I do! CALL!
brick on turn and the Jd hits the river.
M2 tables 62o.
M1 tables 9d 3c
lololololololol
Yea, this is against each other, but they are doing it vs other people too.
M2 walks over to M1, and M1 gives him another $500.
7PM: I run so bad at life.
Up about $700 but not for long.
I straddle pick up 44, and check, taking the flop 6 way. It comes out 345r, and I check planning to check/raise fully expecting maniac 2 to bet. He obliges me by betting $20. Fishy lady calls, fishy unknown calls, Goran raises to $100. This suprised me. However, his raising range is very wide (relatively) because he can easily value raise A5, two pairs, sets both higher and lower, and even any pair + any straight draw, because there is a ton of dead money in the middle and his opponents play terribly. Maniac 1 makes it $500! I don't hesitate at all with my set of fours and jam $1,200 in the middle. Maybe John folds, but I kinda doubt it. I'll ask later.
If my play seems kind of crazy, please note that there were only 3 folds preflop and none on the flop... 8 way raised pots to the flop was standard for this game. We even had a 8 way reraised pot to the flop. While having 6 people see the flop means that it is more likely someone flopped a straight in an absolute sense, also realize that because they play so loosely, they also have a huge range of other hands they could have here.
Maniac 1 folds, Fishy lady calls off $500. Fishy unknown folds, Goran looks at me, double checks his hand and then mucks. M2 snap calls.
The turn is a 7d.
Fuck.
River is a blank Q.
M2 shows A6o
FL shows 64o.
I table 44 and frusteratedly reach in my pocket for 3 more white chips. ($100)
Not long after I get AA, reraise it to 90 preflop and get cold called by M2 in the BB, limp/called by FL, and called by M1.
Flop comes out Kd Qc Qd
Not exaclty stellar, but everyone checks to me on the button. I bet $150 and get called by M2 and FL who is all in. (she somehow lost like $400 in this time.)
M2 asks if I want to check down. I say no, since I assume I have him beat if he asks that.
M2: I have a queen.
Me: Really? Show me.
M2: OK.
And he shows me a Queen.
Me: ...... ok I check down.
The turn is a 4 and he immediately exclaims he made a full house.
Another 4 hits the river and M2 tables Q4o. FL tables QTo.
My aces hit the muck.
In the next BB I pick up 88, and jam for about $300 when there is about $150 of dead money in the middle. I get called in four spots (lol standard), and the flop comes out Ac 3c 3h.
FG shoves the flop for like 400.
M2: Wow I don't think you have it.
He hasn't been right even once so far.
M2: Sir, I don't think you realize how much of a gambler I am.
FG: What do you mean?
M2 turns over KQs.
M2: I am going to call you, I think.
FG: You are drawing to a backdoor if you call.
M2: I don't think you have it. I call.
FG flips over Ad Qh.
lol... as if he's bluffing into a protected pot, with 5 way action with anything less than a flush draw.
I have 88 with a club.
When the Tc hits the turn my hopes go up, as I now have a chance to win the pot with any 8 and any club.
River is a dream crusher and I'm on my way to the ATM.
I put out some phone calls and text messages to see if anyone can drive to the casino and lend me money in case I go broke. My max withdrawal limit on the ATM is $500, which is only 1 buyin.
Lucky for me I don't need it.
8PM: Goran is up to about $2k now.
I have finally figured out my game plan now. Make huge raises to iso the chip dumpers and take them to value town postflop with as little as Ace high. At this point, I feel like I developed strong enough reads of them that tell when they will call it off postflop. If 6+ people go to the flop, my ability to extract value is very limited as generally its been two pair+ winning hands.
I get KJo, and 3bet M1 to $100. M2 cold calls me anyways, and so does M1.
The flop is gin KK7r. M2 checks, M1 bets out $200, I jam for $200 more. M2 calls off his remaining $250, and M1 calls.
The turn is a 2 and the river is a Q.
M2 tables A3o, M1 tables A9o.
I scoop the $1250 pot.
Hey look I'm even on the night now. (just about)
I get QQ and stack MP2 by limping UTG when he straddles, and then reraising to $200. He calls, and then open shoves a 7 high flop with KJo. I hold up and add another $500 to my stack.
I limp ATo utg when he straddles again. This time he checks and hte flop goes 7 way. I value bet $55 on the Ace high flop and only get called by M2. I bet $150 on the turn, and $300 on the river and stack him too. It's kind of funny getting called when you have top pair basically no kicker and watching them instamuck and get shipped another buyin.
I finish off the night by straddling. I get A9s, and M1 makes it $50. I make it $150 and we go HU with about 800 more behind. Flop comes out Ad Js 7d. He checks and I value bet $240. He calls. The turn is another 7, which is an ugly card. He checks to me though, and my read is he would valuebet trips, so I fire another $300. He quickly calls.
The river is an 8c, and he checks again. I bet his remaining $270 or so, and he calls.
And disgustedly mucks when he sees my hand. lol
Other notable pots include when Goran limp/reraised with QJo when M1 just lost a big pot. I didn't like it personally since I thought M1 was folding 0% of the time. He drew out on 99.
Later he made quads kings and missed some value vs M1 by not just betting every street.
I thought Goran didn't adjust well for his opponents. Since they we're so crazy, it was just better to just play hands straight foward. He was kinda nitty, so it didn't suprise me much. While he was good for a 5/5 player, he wasn't amazing or anything. He's probably a solid winner in that game though.
I ended up cashing out with $3,900 which meant I won $2,600. Solid.
The floorman, Paul I think, asked me how much they dropped. I told him about $6-10k (I lost track, they reloaded so much)
Apparently our table had a waiting list over 20 people. So sick. I asked if Paul could call me if the 5/10 game at the Hustler ever runs. And to call me if those guys ever come back. He took my phone number. We'll see if I get to play some bigger local games now.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Here's a quick timeline
4pm - Let the games begin
Sit down at 6/12 limit hold'em while waiting for 5/5. I lose about a $100, which I'm still not sure if that's because I'm bad or ran bad. I'm not excellent at limit hold'em but my opponents seemed even worse. I moved to 5/5 and quickly won my money back and then some.
5pm - May the force be with you?
I'm up a few hundred dollars. Jerry (Seat 8) is getting heckled by the floor because he has assembled a unique structure (?) made out of his chips. I didn't see the issue, he knew exactly how much it was. I told him that if it came down to it, I would make sure to bet exactly $364 and he could just switch seats with me.
A closer inspection reveals Yoda is on top of his stack. No wonder he kept winning pots. Rob got a good laugh out of this one.
Yoda: Three of Diamonds on the river, the force tells me. Call you must!
Nothing special happens for a while, I steal a few pots from the tight pretty solid guy on my right. He is named Goran (?) and he is Serbian. Very nice guy, he's lived here for 18 years.
Two guys bust and another guy leaves, claiming the game is too tight. He left about 5 minutes too soon.
6PM: The game gets good.
I'm up about $500, and then two manaics sit down. A fish I've played with before sits down as well, and then an unknown sits down in seat 1. He quickly proves he's another fish.
Table breakdown.
Seat 1: Fishy unknown middle aged guy (FG)
Seat 2: Goran, solid tag, has about $1k in front of him.
Seat 3: Maniac 1 has tons of money. He is giving seat 6 money. Literally. He bought both of them in. (M1)
Seat 4: Me
Seat 5: uh.... Sorry forgot your name. Plays tight, and plays ok.
Seat 6: Maniac 2, also a station. He never folds, but also will go randomly aggro? Friends with seat 3. (M2)
Seat 7: Rock
Seat 8: Jerry at first, a rock replaces him later.
Seat 9: Fishy lady (FL)
Maniac 1 is playing 95/75/1
Maniac 2 is playing 85/20/0.5
Fishy lady is 60/5/0
Fishy unknown is 50/10/2.5
For those unused to stats, the first number means the percentage of hands they play. The second number is the number of hands they raise preflop, and the third number is aggression. Aggression is measured by the amount they bet and raise divided by how often they check and call. Generally an aggresion level of 3+ is considered aggresive, 1-3 is semi aggresive, and less than 1 is passive.
To give you an idea just how bad M1 and M2, M1 makes it $35 utg, M2 calls and then some others call.
The flop is 7d 6d 2d.
M2 bets $20, M1 raises to $200, M2 shoves for $600.
M2: I have two pairs. Again.
He always says he has two pairs.
M1: I can't fold. Even if you have two pairs.
Me: Do you even have a diamond?
M1 (with a sneer): Of course I do! CALL!
brick on turn and the Jd hits the river.
M2 tables 62o.
M1 tables 9d 3c
lololololololol
Yea, this is against each other, but they are doing it vs other people too.
M2 walks over to M1, and M1 gives him another $500.
7PM: I run so bad at life.
Up about $700 but not for long.
I straddle pick up 44, and check, taking the flop 6 way. It comes out 345r, and I check planning to check/raise fully expecting maniac 2 to bet. He obliges me by betting $20. Fishy lady calls, fishy unknown calls, Goran raises to $100. This suprised me. However, his raising range is very wide (relatively) because he can easily value raise A5, two pairs, sets both higher and lower, and even any pair + any straight draw, because there is a ton of dead money in the middle and his opponents play terribly. Maniac 1 makes it $500! I don't hesitate at all with my set of fours and jam $1,200 in the middle. Maybe John folds, but I kinda doubt it. I'll ask later.
If my play seems kind of crazy, please note that there were only 3 folds preflop and none on the flop... 8 way raised pots to the flop was standard for this game. We even had a 8 way reraised pot to the flop. While having 6 people see the flop means that it is more likely someone flopped a straight in an absolute sense, also realize that because they play so loosely, they also have a huge range of other hands they could have here.
Maniac 1 folds, Fishy lady calls off $500. Fishy unknown folds, Goran looks at me, double checks his hand and then mucks. M2 snap calls.
The turn is a 7d.
Fuck.
River is a blank Q.
M2 shows A6o
FL shows 64o.
I table 44 and frusteratedly reach in my pocket for 3 more white chips. ($100)
Not long after I get AA, reraise it to 90 preflop and get cold called by M2 in the BB, limp/called by FL, and called by M1.
Flop comes out Kd Qc Qd
Not exaclty stellar, but everyone checks to me on the button. I bet $150 and get called by M2 and FL who is all in. (she somehow lost like $400 in this time.)
M2 asks if I want to check down. I say no, since I assume I have him beat if he asks that.
M2: I have a queen.
Me: Really? Show me.
M2: OK.
And he shows me a Queen.
Me: ...... ok I check down.
The turn is a 4 and he immediately exclaims he made a full house.
Another 4 hits the river and M2 tables Q4o. FL tables QTo.
My aces hit the muck.
In the next BB I pick up 88, and jam for about $300 when there is about $150 of dead money in the middle. I get called in four spots (lol standard), and the flop comes out Ac 3c 3h.
FG shoves the flop for like 400.
M2: Wow I don't think you have it.
He hasn't been right even once so far.
M2: Sir, I don't think you realize how much of a gambler I am.
FG: What do you mean?
M2 turns over KQs.
M2: I am going to call you, I think.
FG: You are drawing to a backdoor if you call.
M2: I don't think you have it. I call.
FG flips over Ad Qh.
lol... as if he's bluffing into a protected pot, with 5 way action with anything less than a flush draw.
I have 88 with a club.
When the Tc hits the turn my hopes go up, as I now have a chance to win the pot with any 8 and any club.
River is a dream crusher and I'm on my way to the ATM.
I put out some phone calls and text messages to see if anyone can drive to the casino and lend me money in case I go broke. My max withdrawal limit on the ATM is $500, which is only 1 buyin.
Lucky for me I don't need it.
8PM: Goran is up to about $2k now.
I have finally figured out my game plan now. Make huge raises to iso the chip dumpers and take them to value town postflop with as little as Ace high. At this point, I feel like I developed strong enough reads of them that tell when they will call it off postflop. If 6+ people go to the flop, my ability to extract value is very limited as generally its been two pair+ winning hands.
I get KJo, and 3bet M1 to $100. M2 cold calls me anyways, and so does M1.
The flop is gin KK7r. M2 checks, M1 bets out $200, I jam for $200 more. M2 calls off his remaining $250, and M1 calls.
The turn is a 2 and the river is a Q.
M2 tables A3o, M1 tables A9o.
I scoop the $1250 pot.
Hey look I'm even on the night now. (just about)
I get QQ and stack MP2 by limping UTG when he straddles, and then reraising to $200. He calls, and then open shoves a 7 high flop with KJo. I hold up and add another $500 to my stack.
I limp ATo utg when he straddles again. This time he checks and hte flop goes 7 way. I value bet $55 on the Ace high flop and only get called by M2. I bet $150 on the turn, and $300 on the river and stack him too. It's kind of funny getting called when you have top pair basically no kicker and watching them instamuck and get shipped another buyin.
I finish off the night by straddling. I get A9s, and M1 makes it $50. I make it $150 and we go HU with about 800 more behind. Flop comes out Ad Js 7d. He checks and I value bet $240. He calls. The turn is another 7, which is an ugly card. He checks to me though, and my read is he would valuebet trips, so I fire another $300. He quickly calls.
The river is an 8c, and he checks again. I bet his remaining $270 or so, and he calls.
And disgustedly mucks when he sees my hand. lol
Other notable pots include when Goran limp/reraised with QJo when M1 just lost a big pot. I didn't like it personally since I thought M1 was folding 0% of the time. He drew out on 99.
Later he made quads kings and missed some value vs M1 by not just betting every street.
I thought Goran didn't adjust well for his opponents. Since they we're so crazy, it was just better to just play hands straight foward. He was kinda nitty, so it didn't suprise me much. While he was good for a 5/5 player, he wasn't amazing or anything. He's probably a solid winner in that game though.
I ended up cashing out with $3,900 which meant I won $2,600. Solid.
The floorman, Paul I think, asked me how much they dropped. I told him about $6-10k (I lost track, they reloaded so much)
Apparently our table had a waiting list over 20 people. So sick. I asked if Paul could call me if the 5/10 game at the Hustler ever runs. And to call me if those guys ever come back. He took my phone number. We'll see if I get to play some bigger local games now.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Progress Post #21 - Viva Las Vegas
I ran superrrrrrrrrrr hot.
In a nutshell.
In a nutshell.
Friday
+$540 @ 5/10 @ Venetian
+$780 @ 1/2 @ Venetian
+$780 @ 1/2 @ Venetian
Saturday
-$550 @ Venetian Tournament
+$485 @ 2/5 @ Venetian
+$975 @ 5/10 @ Venetian
+$2,520 @ 10/20 @ Bellagio
+$975 @ 5/10 @ Venetian
+$2,520 @ 10/20 @ Bellagio
Sunday
+$1080 @ 5/10 @ Venetian
Net for Vegas: +$4,770
I ended up going out there with John earlier, since my classes ended earlier then group 2.
I ended up going out there with John earlier, since my classes ended earlier then group 2.
He sits down at 5/10 and I wander around trying to figure out how to sign up for a player's card.
A half hour later, and I'm sitting next to John and buying in for a dime. There is a huge fish on the table. He is absolutely terrible, playing nearly every hand, and putting tons of money in bad.
I end up putting all $1,800 I brought with me on the table. I lost $400 on a bluff, and the fish doubled up through me for another $700 or so when he rivered a straight vs my set.
I am around $660 when I get AKh. I make it $50 to go and get 3 callers. The flop comes out Kc Jh 8s. That's pretty good, so I bet $115. It folds to this lady who min checkraiseses me. I want to puke. That's basically never a bluff and most hands that are legit beat me. I had to call $115 more into a pot of over $500. I couldn't bring myself to fold for that amount when I had some backdoor draws and some chance, although small, that I could be good. The turn brings a 6h, she shoves, I snap now that I picked up a flush draw, and bang a 5h on the river. I roll over a flush as she shows a set of Jacks.
So sick. I'm so bad at this game.
If the river brings any non heart, I'm busto for the weekend in my first two hours.
I collect my chips and the rest of the day is pretty easy. I just run over the table and get money in good when the bigger bets go in. When I run decent, that's usually what happens. I book a solid win for the first session. John's up a few hundred as well, and with Winston finally getting here, the real fun begins.
While Bryce handles the room, I talk with Aki, Zack, Rob and Winston.
We all ended up splitting a suite and then we go to eat.
John and I heard at the table that the cafe at the Venetian is bomb, so we head over. Apparently they still have like a half hour wait at 11:30PM, so it has to be good. Zack and I head out and play some BJ while we wait. I ran bad and lost $25. Zack ran even worse and lost $200 and all he got out of it was a Jack and Coke.
Mike joins us and then we're finally we're set, so I order a jambalya, and grand mojito. It's pretty good. Zach suggests getting a tequila sunrise, which I liked a lot. I ended up getting two.
My portion of the bill was $50
X_X
My portion of the bill was $50
X_X
Note to self. Get alcohol at the tables where it's free.
We head back to the room for a bit. Winston and Zack talk about going to a club, but I'm not really sure what happened. Somehow they dissapeared without me noticing. I tried to call them but they didnt pick up, so I just headed downstairs and played 1/2 with Rob.
wow. Just wow.
1/2 players are so bad it's unbelievable. I got bet/3bet on a AA8Q board with Q9o. He then check called his entire stack off on the river.
WTF. I get no respect.
1/2 players are so bad it's unbelievable. I got bet/3bet on a AA8Q board with Q9o. He then check called his entire stack off on the river.
WTF. I get no respect.
I ended up running hot and winning like $800 at the 1/2 game.
The one thing I like alot about the Vegas games, is that the buyins are usually capped at 100bb+. This is good cause the games have more action, play deeper and tend to be more interesting.
On Saturday I play a $550 tourney at the Venetian. I bust in the second level, and walk over to the Bellagio and buy into the $1080 tourney. It only gets 27 people and mega fish from Venetian is on my table. I'm chip leader heading into the first break, but an hour later and I'm only above average. I get AKo make it 2.5bb UTG. UTG+1 shoves, and MP1 shoves over. I snap call because I KNOW MP1 doesn't have better than QQ. He rolls over JJ, and UTG+1 has A5o. Flop is Jxx and I'm drawing nearly dead. I push the next hand with A6c got called by QJ and get busted when he flops two pair. I head back over to the Venetian to hang out with the guys. We eat dinner, I grind out a buyin at 2/5 and 5/10, then I convince John to play 10/20 at the Bellagio.
We both sit down at 10/20 and John starts off by running good. He quickly wins 1-2k by just picking up good hands. I'm sitting around even when I flop trips with 35d. The guy on my left bets and I c/r. The turn gives me an OESD to go with my trips, and I bet out. He calls. The river is a 7 and I bang the straight. I bet out big, and he quickly calls. And he shows me a 3 and mucks.
John won a $8k pot with the nuts. He limped in with QTo, and the flop comes out Ah Kh Jc. Some lady bets out, then 3bets him, and then 5 bet shoves with JTh. John snapcalls obviously. The board runs out two bricks and he scoops. Man he runs good.
Afterwards, he thanks me for making him come to Bellagio. Hahahaha.
On Sunday, John and I play some more 5/10 and crush. Standard.
Since then I've been to Hustler (-810) and Commerce (-2300)
Giving it all back!
At the Commerce I made a really bad call.
Hand went down like this.
I am playing 10/20 and have about $3500-3700 in play. Villian covers.
CO limps in, and I have JTo. Normally I'd iso him, but I've been really active lately and John and the BB will 3bet me light. So, I just limped in.
The BB makes it $120, and the CO folds. I call with the button and take the flop heads up in position.
Kc Js Th
Pretty good flop for JTo.
He bets $180, and I make it $500.
He tanks and calls.
The turn is a mostly meaningless 7d. Only 98 improved and I really doubt he has 98 here.
He checks, and I bet out $800. He tanks and then SHOVES.
Lets examine what he could have.
He raised preflop in the big blind, so his hand range is weighted much stronger towards big cards. Most smaller hands would see a free flop.
Let's examine our equity.
Drawing dead vs KK, JJ.
2 outs vs TT.
3 outs vs KJ, JT, KT, although all of these are somewhat unlikely
4 outs vs AQ and Q9, but Q9 is very unlikely.
I beat AA and AK.
They have
2 outs to trips.
6 outs to two pair
4 outs to a straight.
I also beat KQ which has even more outs than AA.
Wow, I'm way behind or barely ahead. This is a great formula for mucking two pair.
Easy right? So, I make one of the worst calls of my life.
He rolls over KK and I'm drawing dead.
I stoved it when I got home...
Pokerstove says I have 45% equity!?
This is only true if he has every hand in his range with the same frequency. I don't think this is true for several reasons.
He might not raise KT, KJ, KQ, or JT preflop in the big blind.
He might not go broke on the turn with AA, AK or KQ.
He is never laying down a set, or AQ, which means his hand range is weighted towards hands that have me crushed.
Anyways long story short, play bad get there. Just not in this case.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce, (the donkey)
Monday, September 8, 2008
Progress Post #20 - A (degenerate) day at the Hustler Casino
I decided to go to the Hustler after class. I only had $160 on me, so I sat down at the $2/$5 game. Since it only has a $100-$300 buyin spread, I figured I could shortstack the game while doing some school work.
I lost it when my AA got cracked with K3d when he called 25% of his stack preflop. Nice play sir.
I go to the ATM and withdraw $500. I eat a $3 finance charge, which is kinda like w/e.
I get called for the $5/$5 game and I buy in for $500. I play O.K. not really good, and win about $110. I decide to then play the tournament.
It's a $100+$25 tournament with one optional rebuy. I decide to rebuy immediately and proceed to dump off 1/4 of my stack stupidly and lose another 1/4 from missing cards.
In the 3rd level, I get AKs, shove over a few limpers get called by AQo (who limped behind two other people on the button) and he spikes a Queen. GG NH.
I move back play 1 hand of 1-2 where I lose $25 with 88. I go back to 5-5 and buyin for $500.
I make a bad call with a flush draw on the turn and catch the river and double up to $1k.
I float around $1,000 for a while and then take a bad string of hand and dump $700 or so.
Hand #1. Call a river c/r with two pair. He has the nut straight obv. Lose $200.
Hand #2. Attempt a river bluff raise on a Ts7s7h 3d 3s board. He really almost folded and then said, "Ah whatever, if I lose this hand, I'll go home." He called with 3 X.
Hand #3. I squeeze a bunch of limpers with J7c on the button, get called by a mega fish in the BB. I flop nothing check it behind. On the turn I pick up a gutshot and flush draw, he checks I bet about half his stack, he shoves I instacall and he shows me a flopped full house.
At this point, I kind of stopped caring. I should've left, but instead felt like just gambling and losing the remainder of my money.
I ended up dumping chips to around $100, shoving with Q7o after I straddled, getting called by 99 and TT.
Flop - 7s Qs 9h in that order.
The dealer made it slow too.
Our table starting yelling and stuff. We built quite a crowd when the turn card hit.
Turn - 7d
At this point half the table thought I was ahead. Then someone point out his nines full still beat me.
I call for a queen on the river.
River - Q
And get it.
So sick.
I am kind of on a natural high. I am having so much fun at this point, that I just stopped caring. I made a huge raise with 52o and open shoved the flop and took it down.
Then I busted when I squeezed with A2o, and open shoved on a Q34 flop. I got instacalled by KQ and he held up.
Hahahahah... not my usual casino trip, but hey I enjoyed myself. I lost $700 though, I'll have to recoup that later. Still it's good to remember poker is still just about enjoyin myself when it comes down to it.
See you across the felt.
Bryce, the degen.
I lost it when my AA got cracked with K3d when he called 25% of his stack preflop. Nice play sir.
I go to the ATM and withdraw $500. I eat a $3 finance charge, which is kinda like w/e.
I get called for the $5/$5 game and I buy in for $500. I play O.K. not really good, and win about $110. I decide to then play the tournament.
It's a $100+$25 tournament with one optional rebuy. I decide to rebuy immediately and proceed to dump off 1/4 of my stack stupidly and lose another 1/4 from missing cards.
In the 3rd level, I get AKs, shove over a few limpers get called by AQo (who limped behind two other people on the button) and he spikes a Queen. GG NH.
I move back play 1 hand of 1-2 where I lose $25 with 88. I go back to 5-5 and buyin for $500.
I make a bad call with a flush draw on the turn and catch the river and double up to $1k.
I float around $1,000 for a while and then take a bad string of hand and dump $700 or so.
Hand #1. Call a river c/r with two pair. He has the nut straight obv. Lose $200.
Hand #2. Attempt a river bluff raise on a Ts7s7h 3d 3s board. He really almost folded and then said, "Ah whatever, if I lose this hand, I'll go home." He called with 3 X.
Hand #3. I squeeze a bunch of limpers with J7c on the button, get called by a mega fish in the BB. I flop nothing check it behind. On the turn I pick up a gutshot and flush draw, he checks I bet about half his stack, he shoves I instacall and he shows me a flopped full house.
At this point, I kind of stopped caring. I should've left, but instead felt like just gambling and losing the remainder of my money.
I ended up dumping chips to around $100, shoving with Q7o after I straddled, getting called by 99 and TT.
Flop - 7s Qs 9h in that order.
The dealer made it slow too.
Our table starting yelling and stuff. We built quite a crowd when the turn card hit.
Turn - 7d
At this point half the table thought I was ahead. Then someone point out his nines full still beat me.
I call for a queen on the river.
River - Q
And get it.
So sick.
I am kind of on a natural high. I am having so much fun at this point, that I just stopped caring. I made a huge raise with 52o and open shoved the flop and took it down.
Then I busted when I squeezed with A2o, and open shoved on a Q34 flop. I got instacalled by KQ and he held up.
Hahahahah... not my usual casino trip, but hey I enjoyed myself. I lost $700 though, I'll have to recoup that later. Still it's good to remember poker is still just about enjoyin myself when it comes down to it.
See you across the felt.
Bryce, the degen.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Monthly Report - August 2008
I get off the worst month of my life and come back for the best month of my life. Poker can be so sick.
Online Cash Games:
August: -$151.10
YTD: -$1,000.67
Onine Tournaments:
August: -$760.80
YTD: +$3,595.82
Live Cash Games:
August: +$5,215
YTD: +$8,364
Live Tournament Poker:
August: +$2,040
YTD: +$2,040
Net for poker:
August: +$6,343.10
YTD: +$12,799.15
Stakes: -$100
SK you fail.
August: -$100
YTD: -$2,236.81
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month: +$7,243.10
YTD: +$10,762.34
I'm also going to keep track of my expenses for tax write offs. That's mostly going to be traveling expenses, but also for whatever else comes up.
Expenses:
5 Roundtrips to Morongo
Comments on August: I ran pretty hot at Morongo. My previous post describes most of that. I feel like I played well. I still can't cash in any tournaments online. I haven't played much cash game poker, in September I plan to play a lot more both live and online.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Online Cash Games:
August: -$151.10
YTD: -$1,000.67
Onine Tournaments:
August: -$760.80
YTD: +$3,595.82
Live Cash Games:
August: +$5,215
YTD: +$8,364
Live Tournament Poker:
August: +$2,040
YTD: +$2,040
Net for poker:
August: +$6,343.10
YTD: +$12,799.15
Stakes: -$100
SK you fail.
August: -$100
YTD: -$2,236.81
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month: +$7,243.10
YTD: +$10,762.34
I'm also going to keep track of my expenses for tax write offs. That's mostly going to be traveling expenses, but also for whatever else comes up.
Expenses:
5 Roundtrips to Morongo
Comments on August: I ran pretty hot at Morongo. My previous post describes most of that. I feel like I played well. I still can't cash in any tournaments online. I haven't played much cash game poker, in September I plan to play a lot more both live and online.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Progress Post #19 - Saying goodbye and thanks to Morongo
Happy Birthday to me. I turned 21 today. Winston and a few other guys came over and we played beer pong. The idea was to go out to bars and maybe play drunken poker but that never happened. We're all going to Vegas for Winston's 21st in a week anyways, so we can do that there.
Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who wished me a happy birthday.
Since I'm now 21, I don't really have much of a reason to go to Morongo anymore. I'll probably be heading to Hollywood Park and Commerce and the Bike instead.
So it's time to recap August.
August was good to me. Good thing too, since July sucked hardcore.
I didn't play a lot of online poker, but I went to Morongo practically non-stop. I had some huge days there.
I came up nearly everytime I went. I ran pretty good. There were running a promotion for full houses. If you got 5 full houses in the month you were entered in a triple shootout freeroll.
I had 3 stamps by the time I played the tourney.
I went on Friday and played a $160 buyin. I got 3rd and cashed for $3,000.
Wow just wow. Live tournaments are so soft. They didn't have the slightest understanding of M, or how stack sizes effect your play. They didn't understand blind stealing or isolation. I couldn't even resteal! They weren't stealing in the first place! I'm gonna play more live tourneys. There is just so much equity in them. Then again I hear Morongo is much softer than other live games, so I dunno.
I had an interesting experience in the tournament.
Only the final table cashed and when I made the final table there was talk about a chop. I was 8th or 9th in chips, so an even chop sounded great to me. $2,000 each was basically 4th place prize money for everyone. The chip leader didn't want to chop so we began play. To be expected. But this is where it got interesting. In the first 5 hands he goes from chip leader to shortest stack. The blinds are absolutely huge. Even the chip leader has less than 20bb. Most shortstacks have 5 or less. Yet almost no one has opened their hand range and shoved lighter.
When I'm utg, the blind level is almost up, and the once chip leader asks how long he can just sit there to run the clock. It's quite the asshole move, although to be fair it's perfectly legal. The floorman gives him 1 minute, and with 45 seconds before the blinds go up that's all he needs. The blinds go up on me reducing me to a 3bb stack. And I get a walk. I keep shoving to pick up the huge blinds and eventually get up to 3rd in chips. I keep my stack and and recover as the previous chip leader goes on a tear and doubles up then busts 4 people to regain the lead. I bust two guys myself when I iso a guy with 0.5bb with K5o and win the dead money on the side and then spike a King to suck out on his TT. I take out another shorty on a legit coinflip with AQ vs 88.
Eventually we go 3 handed, and the chip leader only has 7bb at this point. I just keep shoving it in but I run K9s into AJd and he holds up. GG.
I play a little live poker and mostly break even. I get a stamp though.
I went back again on Saturday with John. I was talking to him and our conversation went something like this.
"Want to go to Morongo tomorrow?"
"I just got back from Morongo."
"So?"
"Ok you talked me into it."
John came up like $300 or something. We were both playing 2-5 all night.
We played $1/$3 and dropped a quick 100 each. That game is so stupid.
I moved to $2/$5 and immediately flopped a set, stacked a shortstack KQs vs AJo preflop. Is there any wonder why I like $2/$5 so much?
Oh and I banged a straight flush on the turn vs a set for my 5th stamp. The quest for stamps was ended. I was entered in the freeroll for the following Monday.
Nothing happens for a long time. I try to run a bluff vs John, he instacalls me with a straight. Hm. Ok that's like the top of his range. Still I learned something about board texture when we talked about it.
I was up like $500-600 for like the entire night and finally at 4AM, I picked up JJ.
Terrible Lady limps in.
Old(er) guy, who seems half decent limps in.
Kid limps in.
John limps in.
I make it $50 with JJ in the SB. I figure I'm kinda turning my hand faceup vs John, but the rest of them are bad enough at hand reading that I think it's ok. I like to raise more with my more vulnerable hands like QQ-88, AK, AQ. It's tough playing these hands OOP a lot of the time, so I'd like to force my opponents to pay more in order to play against me there.
I'd probably raise less with AKs, KQs, KK, AA, and other drawy type hands since I don't mind going multiway as much.
Anyways, the lady calls, the old guy calls, kid calls and John folds.
Flop is 8d 8c 4d.
Pot is $205.
I check.
It was a pretty weird play. I usually bet in this spot close to 100% of the time, but for some reason I decided to get tricky not really sure why. My plan was to c/shove over lady and kid, but I wasn't sure what to do vs old guy since he had me covered. I had about $1150 behind still after my preflop raise, so we were pretty deepstacked.
Lady checks and the old guy bets $220 or $230. I can't remember exactly. The kid folds, and it's on me.
I remember thinking, "Man, that's a weird bet. It's more than the pot but not much more. Why overbet here?"
Protection seemed most obvious. I thought he had a vulnerable hand here. I thought an 8 was unlikely and that combo draws might make sense. I didn't think he would overbet with 44 or an 8. I thought A4 or 55+ made the most sense to me. I think he raises QQ+ preflop, or would've limp reraised it. Furthermore some live players overbet with their strong one pair hands in order to price out draws and to try and take it down there. I don't get their logic, but if they do it, I'll have to take it into account.
Still to be honest, my thought process isn't really that clear when I play. I go more with a hmm, this seems right and do it. I want to believe that my instincts are really just my subconscious running and saying based on past experiences this is right.
Eventually I decide to c/r to $500. This is definitely a weird play and John says he hates it cause I'm overrepping my hands. That is definitely true, since this play looks like AA or maybe Ad Kd. I dunno, I just thought I had the best hand and my play looked so unusual he might pay me off with worse.
The lady folds and the guy instantly says all in.
A few curses tumble out of my mouth, and then I gather some composure and start to count the pot.
I announce to the table, I'm priced in to call, so I do.
The board runs out a diamond on the turn and a blank on the river.
I'm about to muck my hand when he tables 99.
I am shocked. So is John.
I scoop the $2,400 pot tip $15, and then get ready to go. Jiar busted his buyin a while ago and has been waiting for us. I hate to hit and run, but gotta do what ya gotta do.
I decided to open a deposit box while I was there. I should've thought of that ages ago.
I come back yet again on Monday.
I quickly bust in my triple shootout. I run AQ into AK in a low blind situation in a tourney. W/E standard. I move to the cash games.
This time there are a bunch of regs there. I notice Cowboy is sitting in his usual seat, but it isn't a $2/$5 game being spread there. I ask the board what's up. Apparently table 2 is a $10/$20 game today because table 2 hit a jackpot.
Wow. I've never seen that before. I ask to be put on the waitlist for $10/$20 and $2/$5 while I run to the cage and get the $1,500 I stored there from last time.
I call John and ask his opinion on what I should play. He thinks I should play $2/$5 until I hit like $2000 - $2500 and then move. I thank him for his advice and sit at $2/$5 when my name is called. I get up to $1800 pretty fast. Then my name is called for $10/$20. Decision time.
I pick up my chips and sit down with a bunch of guys I know.
Most of the stacks are $5,000 deep or more.
Sounds good to me. Game on.
I steal a few pots early and run up to about $2,300. I lose one medium smallish pot and am down to $2,000. All standard stuff. Cowboy leaves, and I'm feeling pretty good about my table now. Only Brandon (a chip runner for Morongo) is really a threat, and he's pretty tight so I don't have to worry about it to much. Craig is whining about me as usual, and he does some really bad etiquette stuff, like berating the dealers for giving him bad cards, and digging my mucked cards out and looking at them. That last one is really bad, and I probably could've gotten him kicked out if I felt like it. Still he was dead money, so I just let him do whatever.
Eventually the big hand of my night comes up. I get 66 and limp in behind 2 other guys. Brandon limps on the button behind me and both blinds complete/check.
Flop is 6 handed (lol), and its Ad 6s 3s.
Don't you know how to win at poker? Flop more sets.
It's checked to be and I bet $60. Brandon makes it $220.
Folds around to one lady who check/flatcalls the raise lol.
I think for a bit. Brandon is probably only raising two pair+ and big draws. I don't really have any reason to slowplay, and any raise is commiting me anyways.
So I shove for $1,785 more.
Brandon thinks for a second and looks taken aback. He double checks his hand and says "I call." as he moves a stack of blacks across the line.
Music to my ears. His lack of hesitation means I have him drawing to 1-4 outs.
He asks if I have a flush draw. I tell him I have a set. He just shakes his head as the dealer runs out two more spades. (good thing he didn't have As3x or As6x)
He shows 33 I show 66 and scoop a $4,100 pot.
I stick around for a while more and stack some donkey who calls my 3barrel with middle pair. I show him two pair.
Brandon leaves, and another guys quits so the table breaks. I walk out with $3,500.
Sick night
I come back one more time on labor day to get the $2,000 I have on deposit and lose $600.
I also play 10 HU matches wtih Jeff for $100 each. I lose 9.
It's been quite an adventure out in Cabazon. I'm never gonna forget it.
Goodbye Morongo.
And next week?
Hello Las Vegas~
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who wished me a happy birthday.
Since I'm now 21, I don't really have much of a reason to go to Morongo anymore. I'll probably be heading to Hollywood Park and Commerce and the Bike instead.
So it's time to recap August.
August was good to me. Good thing too, since July sucked hardcore.
I didn't play a lot of online poker, but I went to Morongo practically non-stop. I had some huge days there.
I came up nearly everytime I went. I ran pretty good. There were running a promotion for full houses. If you got 5 full houses in the month you were entered in a triple shootout freeroll.
I had 3 stamps by the time I played the tourney.
I went on Friday and played a $160 buyin. I got 3rd and cashed for $3,000.
Wow just wow. Live tournaments are so soft. They didn't have the slightest understanding of M, or how stack sizes effect your play. They didn't understand blind stealing or isolation. I couldn't even resteal! They weren't stealing in the first place! I'm gonna play more live tourneys. There is just so much equity in them. Then again I hear Morongo is much softer than other live games, so I dunno.
I had an interesting experience in the tournament.
Only the final table cashed and when I made the final table there was talk about a chop. I was 8th or 9th in chips, so an even chop sounded great to me. $2,000 each was basically 4th place prize money for everyone. The chip leader didn't want to chop so we began play. To be expected. But this is where it got interesting. In the first 5 hands he goes from chip leader to shortest stack. The blinds are absolutely huge. Even the chip leader has less than 20bb. Most shortstacks have 5 or less. Yet almost no one has opened their hand range and shoved lighter.
When I'm utg, the blind level is almost up, and the once chip leader asks how long he can just sit there to run the clock. It's quite the asshole move, although to be fair it's perfectly legal. The floorman gives him 1 minute, and with 45 seconds before the blinds go up that's all he needs. The blinds go up on me reducing me to a 3bb stack. And I get a walk. I keep shoving to pick up the huge blinds and eventually get up to 3rd in chips. I keep my stack and and recover as the previous chip leader goes on a tear and doubles up then busts 4 people to regain the lead. I bust two guys myself when I iso a guy with 0.5bb with K5o and win the dead money on the side and then spike a King to suck out on his TT. I take out another shorty on a legit coinflip with AQ vs 88.
Eventually we go 3 handed, and the chip leader only has 7bb at this point. I just keep shoving it in but I run K9s into AJd and he holds up. GG.
I play a little live poker and mostly break even. I get a stamp though.
I went back again on Saturday with John. I was talking to him and our conversation went something like this.
"Want to go to Morongo tomorrow?"
"I just got back from Morongo."
"So?"
"Ok you talked me into it."
John came up like $300 or something. We were both playing 2-5 all night.
We played $1/$3 and dropped a quick 100 each. That game is so stupid.
I moved to $2/$5 and immediately flopped a set, stacked a shortstack KQs vs AJo preflop. Is there any wonder why I like $2/$5 so much?
Oh and I banged a straight flush on the turn vs a set for my 5th stamp. The quest for stamps was ended. I was entered in the freeroll for the following Monday.
Nothing happens for a long time. I try to run a bluff vs John, he instacalls me with a straight. Hm. Ok that's like the top of his range. Still I learned something about board texture when we talked about it.
I was up like $500-600 for like the entire night and finally at 4AM, I picked up JJ.
Terrible Lady limps in.
Old(er) guy, who seems half decent limps in.
Kid limps in.
John limps in.
I make it $50 with JJ in the SB. I figure I'm kinda turning my hand faceup vs John, but the rest of them are bad enough at hand reading that I think it's ok. I like to raise more with my more vulnerable hands like QQ-88, AK, AQ. It's tough playing these hands OOP a lot of the time, so I'd like to force my opponents to pay more in order to play against me there.
I'd probably raise less with AKs, KQs, KK, AA, and other drawy type hands since I don't mind going multiway as much.
Anyways, the lady calls, the old guy calls, kid calls and John folds.
Flop is 8d 8c 4d.
Pot is $205.
I check.
It was a pretty weird play. I usually bet in this spot close to 100% of the time, but for some reason I decided to get tricky not really sure why. My plan was to c/shove over lady and kid, but I wasn't sure what to do vs old guy since he had me covered. I had about $1150 behind still after my preflop raise, so we were pretty deepstacked.
Lady checks and the old guy bets $220 or $230. I can't remember exactly. The kid folds, and it's on me.
I remember thinking, "Man, that's a weird bet. It's more than the pot but not much more. Why overbet here?"
Protection seemed most obvious. I thought he had a vulnerable hand here. I thought an 8 was unlikely and that combo draws might make sense. I didn't think he would overbet with 44 or an 8. I thought A4 or 55+ made the most sense to me. I think he raises QQ+ preflop, or would've limp reraised it. Furthermore some live players overbet with their strong one pair hands in order to price out draws and to try and take it down there. I don't get their logic, but if they do it, I'll have to take it into account.
Still to be honest, my thought process isn't really that clear when I play. I go more with a hmm, this seems right and do it. I want to believe that my instincts are really just my subconscious running and saying based on past experiences this is right.
Eventually I decide to c/r to $500. This is definitely a weird play and John says he hates it cause I'm overrepping my hands. That is definitely true, since this play looks like AA or maybe Ad Kd. I dunno, I just thought I had the best hand and my play looked so unusual he might pay me off with worse.
The lady folds and the guy instantly says all in.
A few curses tumble out of my mouth, and then I gather some composure and start to count the pot.
I announce to the table, I'm priced in to call, so I do.
The board runs out a diamond on the turn and a blank on the river.
I'm about to muck my hand when he tables 99.
I am shocked. So is John.
I scoop the $2,400 pot tip $15, and then get ready to go. Jiar busted his buyin a while ago and has been waiting for us. I hate to hit and run, but gotta do what ya gotta do.
I decided to open a deposit box while I was there. I should've thought of that ages ago.
I come back yet again on Monday.
I quickly bust in my triple shootout. I run AQ into AK in a low blind situation in a tourney. W/E standard. I move to the cash games.
This time there are a bunch of regs there. I notice Cowboy is sitting in his usual seat, but it isn't a $2/$5 game being spread there. I ask the board what's up. Apparently table 2 is a $10/$20 game today because table 2 hit a jackpot.
Wow. I've never seen that before. I ask to be put on the waitlist for $10/$20 and $2/$5 while I run to the cage and get the $1,500 I stored there from last time.
I call John and ask his opinion on what I should play. He thinks I should play $2/$5 until I hit like $2000 - $2500 and then move. I thank him for his advice and sit at $2/$5 when my name is called. I get up to $1800 pretty fast. Then my name is called for $10/$20. Decision time.
I pick up my chips and sit down with a bunch of guys I know.
Most of the stacks are $5,000 deep or more.
Sounds good to me. Game on.
I steal a few pots early and run up to about $2,300. I lose one medium smallish pot and am down to $2,000. All standard stuff. Cowboy leaves, and I'm feeling pretty good about my table now. Only Brandon (a chip runner for Morongo) is really a threat, and he's pretty tight so I don't have to worry about it to much. Craig is whining about me as usual, and he does some really bad etiquette stuff, like berating the dealers for giving him bad cards, and digging my mucked cards out and looking at them. That last one is really bad, and I probably could've gotten him kicked out if I felt like it. Still he was dead money, so I just let him do whatever.
Eventually the big hand of my night comes up. I get 66 and limp in behind 2 other guys. Brandon limps on the button behind me and both blinds complete/check.
Flop is 6 handed (lol), and its Ad 6s 3s.
Don't you know how to win at poker? Flop more sets.
It's checked to be and I bet $60. Brandon makes it $220.
Folds around to one lady who check/flatcalls the raise lol.
I think for a bit. Brandon is probably only raising two pair+ and big draws. I don't really have any reason to slowplay, and any raise is commiting me anyways.
So I shove for $1,785 more.
Brandon thinks for a second and looks taken aback. He double checks his hand and says "I call." as he moves a stack of blacks across the line.
Music to my ears. His lack of hesitation means I have him drawing to 1-4 outs.
He asks if I have a flush draw. I tell him I have a set. He just shakes his head as the dealer runs out two more spades. (good thing he didn't have As3x or As6x)
He shows 33 I show 66 and scoop a $4,100 pot.
I stick around for a while more and stack some donkey who calls my 3barrel with middle pair. I show him two pair.
Brandon leaves, and another guys quits so the table breaks. I walk out with $3,500.
Sick night
I come back one more time on labor day to get the $2,000 I have on deposit and lose $600.
I also play 10 HU matches wtih Jeff for $100 each. I lose 9.
It's been quite an adventure out in Cabazon. I'm never gonna forget it.
Goodbye Morongo.
And next week?
Hello Las Vegas~
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monthly Report - July 2008
Worst Month EVER.
Online Cash Games:
July: -$1,935.20
YTD: -$849.57
Onine Tournaments:
In July: -$2,711.87
YTD: +$4,356.62
Live Cash Games:
In June: -$200
YTD: +$3,149
Net for poker:
In June: -$4,847.07
YTD: +$6,656.05
Stakes
Nate: -$1,200
Not sure what happened here I'll have to look into it more. With 100 big bets and a good winrate, this probably shouldn't have gone busto. Not really sure what to make of it.
Winston: -$926.81
I watched him play most of this. This was almost entirely running bad. I'll probably continue to stake him at least for a little while longer.
July: -$2,126.81
YTD: -$2,136.81
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month: -$6,973.88
YTD - +$4,559.24
Comments on July:
Worst month of my life. I ran bad myself, and ran bad in staking. I went to Chicago at the end of the month and ran bad in life by getting food poisoning. July sucked through and through. I managed to take down $900 at Morongo at the end of the month to make it slightly less painful.
Monthly Graph for online cash games:
Monthly Goals Set:
Win $2,500 - Failed, quite miserably at that
Achieve Gold level - Failed, only made Silver
Goals for next month:
Win $2,000
Rebuild my bankroll to be able to play 100nl
See you across the felt.
Online Cash Games:
July: -$1,935.20
YTD: -$849.57
Onine Tournaments:
In July: -$2,711.87
YTD: +$4,356.62
Live Cash Games:
In June: -$200
YTD: +$3,149
Net for poker:
In June: -$4,847.07
YTD: +$6,656.05
Stakes
Nate: -$1,200
Not sure what happened here I'll have to look into it more. With 100 big bets and a good winrate, this probably shouldn't have gone busto. Not really sure what to make of it.
Winston: -$926.81
I watched him play most of this. This was almost entirely running bad. I'll probably continue to stake him at least for a little while longer.
July: -$2,126.81
YTD: -$2,136.81
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month: -$6,973.88
YTD - +$4,559.24
Comments on July:
Worst month of my life. I ran bad myself, and ran bad in staking. I went to Chicago at the end of the month and ran bad in life by getting food poisoning. July sucked through and through. I managed to take down $900 at Morongo at the end of the month to make it slightly less painful.
Monthly Graph for online cash games:
Monthly Goals Set:
Win $2,500 - Failed, quite miserably at that
Achieve Gold level - Failed, only made Silver
Goals for next month:
Win $2,000
Rebuild my bankroll to be able to play 100nl
See you across the felt.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monthly Report - June 2008
I decided to switch to this for keeping updates, it should be easier.
Online Cash Games:
Since Last Post- -$172.40
In June - +$542.85
YTD- $1,085.63
Onine Tournaments:
Since Last Post- -$658
In June - +$4,997.56
YTD- +$7,068.49
Live Cash Games:
Since Last Post- +$120
In June - +$120
YTD - $3,349
Net for poker:
Since last post- -$710.40
In June - +$5,731.88
YTD - +$11,503.12
Stakes -
Existing Stakes - Nate $1,200 (will be counted in when stake ends)
Net from stakes this month - -$10
Since last post - +$82
YTD - -$10
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month - +$5,761.88
YTD - +$11,533.12
Money Invested into learning: $167.39
$80 - PokerTracker
$87.39 - Amazon.com bought books on June 30th
I'm considering buying omaha tracker and getting into PLO. Not sure, I kind of want a coach before I do.
I think I'll just stick to monthly reports from now on. It's easier. I'll still do progress reports but I won't give constant number updates.
Comments on June:
End of the month was pretty swingy. I regularly had $500-$1,000 days going both ways. It was pretty intense.
These graphs are kinda small, but eh, whatever. You get the idea.
Monthly Graph for online cash games:
Monthly Graph for online tourneys:
Monthly Goals Set:
Win $2,000 - Achieved
Achieve any Iron Man level - Achieved, Iron
Goals for next month:
Win $2,500
Move up to 200nl as my primary game.
Reach at least Gold in Iron Man Promotion
See you across the felt
Bryce
Online Cash Games:
Since Last Post- -$172.40
In June - +$542.85
YTD- $1,085.63
Onine Tournaments:
Since Last Post- -$658
In June - +$4,997.56
YTD- +$7,068.49
Live Cash Games:
Since Last Post- +$120
In June - +$120
YTD - $3,349
Net for poker:
Since last post- -$710.40
In June - +$5,731.88
YTD - +$11,503.12
Stakes -
Existing Stakes - Nate $1,200 (will be counted in when stake ends)
Net from stakes this month - -$10
Since last post - +$82
YTD - -$10
(Cake is counted as negative)
Total Net for the month - +$5,761.88
YTD - +$11,533.12
Money Invested into learning: $167.39
$80 - PokerTracker
$87.39 - Amazon.com bought books on June 30th
I'm considering buying omaha tracker and getting into PLO. Not sure, I kind of want a coach before I do.
I think I'll just stick to monthly reports from now on. It's easier. I'll still do progress reports but I won't give constant number updates.
Comments on June:
End of the month was pretty swingy. I regularly had $500-$1,000 days going both ways. It was pretty intense.
These graphs are kinda small, but eh, whatever. You get the idea.
Monthly Graph for online cash games:
Monthly Graph for online tourneys:
Monthly Goals Set:
Win $2,000 - Achieved
Achieve any Iron Man level - Achieved, Iron
Goals for next month:
Win $2,500
Move up to 200nl as my primary game.
Reach at least Gold in Iron Man Promotion
See you across the felt
Bryce
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Progress Report #18: Play Bad, Get There, and WTF Tim is everywhere
Since my last post
Live Cash Games: +240
Online Cash Games: +$120.35
Tournaments:
Net since last post: -$143.23
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$3,229
Online cash games: +$1,258.03
Online Tournaments: +$7,724.49
Net winnings this year: +$11,874.4
Staking:
Staking: -$96
Stakes Existing:
Nate: $1,200
Winston has props for the title.
KK > AT > QQ all in on a TT5 flop. How am I supposed to give him credit for trips?
So I got a lot to report.
I've been running ok online. I have had some big swings both ways.
I played a home game at Coach Bob's house. Coach Bob is Jeff's baseball coach from high school.
I decided to mess around and ended up dumping like $240, mostly to Tim, who always seems to have my number when we play. He is a friend of Jeff's and he is a decent player.
I played the sickest hand I've ever seen there.
UTG: Coach Bob
UTG+1: Yoshi's friend
MP1: Yoshi
MP2: Me
MP3: Mike
HJ: Yoshi's Other friend
CO: Josh
BTN: Tim
SB: Winston
BB: Jeff
I have about $80 in front of me.
UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, MP1 limps, I limp in MP2 with 35o.
This is where it gets a bit crazy.
MP3 limps, HJ limps, CO raises to $4
LOL. Such a small raise only builds the pot and reopens you to getting reraised.
BTN cold calls with a huge stack like $200. SB calls, BB calls, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, I call, MP3 SHOVES for $18 and reopens action. HJ shoves over for $19.5,
CO FOLDS HAHAHAHHAHA, BTN calls, SB PUSHES FOR $24. BB calls with, all fold to me, where i'm looking at calling $20 into like a $150 pot.
I call. BTN calls and closes action.
Flop is Th 3h Tc.
Jeff (BB) pushes for $10, I have $50 behind with Tim (BTN) behind and he's itching to put his chips in.
I fold. This is debatable. However I felt there was no way I win this pot without catching a 3. I have two outs vs 66 and up, 0 outs vs any Ten and everyone had over cards and someone has to have a flush draw. So I fold.
BTN calls, hands are flipped over.
SB - Jd 7d
BB - 2c 3c
MP3 - AdQs
HJ - As 6s
BTN - Ah 6h
WTF I have the best hand.
Turn 4c, river 5h.
Jeff's 23 scoops a $200 pot. With a pair of threes.
That I had outkicked, and caught a better pair on the river.
I've played a lot of poker, and I've never seen that before. In the top 10 sickest hands for sure.
I went to Morongo on Sunday. SK and Mitch came along. SK and I played 2/5 and Mitch played $0.50/$1.
Lo and behold, I find Tim sitting at 2/5.
I get on the wait list and then get some food. SK and I play some blackjack. I lose like $70, and SK wins $50.
He laughs that he did better than me, so I pointed out that he is now only net -$1,250 in blackjack. He stopped talking.
I sat down on $2/$5 and bought in for $600. I also staked SK for $100. He sticks to short stack strategy and obv busts with AQh vs TT preflop.
Then he reloads on his own for $100, and wins like $200. Standard.
I ran pretty hot honestly. I won about $600 total, but I was up like $1,200 at one point. I got AA vs Tim, and he limp/reraised me lol. I just put a rack in and he folded. I lost a sidepot to a short stack with J8s, what Jeff calls "the super deluxe." In retrospect, when discussing with Winston, I think I should've made it like $350 or $400 opposed to $500, to keep Tim in. I had the potential to scoop like another $1,300 off of him.
Shrugs.
Mitch lost 3 buyins at 1/3. He played ok.
SK won like $200 by only playing like 20 hands the whole day.
Nate dropped by and I gave him $1,200 for a long term stake. According to a site called PartTimePoker, which is a staking site, long term multigame stakes are called heebs. I wonder how that was decided. Anyways, I gave Nate $1,200 to play 6/12 and lower limit hold'em. He is a very good limit player, and the agreement is a 60/40 cut for the backer. He doesn't have a bankroll right now, so he's looking to find a way to build one. Assuming he doesn't run terrible, this should be profitable for both of us.
Rob went to the Las Vegas with his fiance on Friday. He played the $1,500 WSOP event #39 on Saturday. He made day 2, and cashed for about $3,100. I think he was like 172 place out of 2700+. Very nice job Rob.
Then we played another home game at Rob's house. Jenaya (his fiance) wanted to learn how to play Hold'em a bit better, so we played a casual game. I sucked out on Winston once, and then didn't catch anything for the rest of the night. Shrugs. I wasn't playing very seriously, I was mostly just enjoying it. Once again Tim was there, and once again Tim took all my money. -$120 there.
It's been a fun week, gotta say. Winston wants to start golfing regularly. It does seem like something I would enjoy, so I might actually try it out seriously.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Live Cash Games: +240
Online Cash Games: +$120.35
Tournaments:
Net since last post: -$143.23
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$3,229
Online cash games: +$1,258.03
Online Tournaments: +$7,724.49
Net winnings this year: +$11,874.4
Staking:
Staking: -$96
Stakes Existing:
Nate: $1,200
Winston has props for the title.
KK > AT > QQ all in on a TT5 flop. How am I supposed to give him credit for trips?
So I got a lot to report.
I've been running ok online. I have had some big swings both ways.
I played a home game at Coach Bob's house. Coach Bob is Jeff's baseball coach from high school.
I decided to mess around and ended up dumping like $240, mostly to Tim, who always seems to have my number when we play. He is a friend of Jeff's and he is a decent player.
I played the sickest hand I've ever seen there.
UTG: Coach Bob
UTG+1: Yoshi's friend
MP1: Yoshi
MP2: Me
MP3: Mike
HJ: Yoshi's Other friend
CO: Josh
BTN: Tim
SB: Winston
BB: Jeff
I have about $80 in front of me.
UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, MP1 limps, I limp in MP2 with 35o.
This is where it gets a bit crazy.
MP3 limps, HJ limps, CO raises to $4
LOL. Such a small raise only builds the pot and reopens you to getting reraised.
BTN cold calls with a huge stack like $200. SB calls, BB calls, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, I call, MP3 SHOVES for $18 and reopens action. HJ shoves over for $19.5,
CO FOLDS HAHAHAHHAHA, BTN calls, SB PUSHES FOR $24. BB calls with, all fold to me, where i'm looking at calling $20 into like a $150 pot.
I call. BTN calls and closes action.
Flop is Th 3h Tc.
Jeff (BB) pushes for $10, I have $50 behind with Tim (BTN) behind and he's itching to put his chips in.
I fold. This is debatable. However I felt there was no way I win this pot without catching a 3. I have two outs vs 66 and up, 0 outs vs any Ten and everyone had over cards and someone has to have a flush draw. So I fold.
BTN calls, hands are flipped over.
SB - Jd 7d
BB - 2c 3c
MP3 - AdQs
HJ - As 6s
BTN - Ah 6h
WTF I have the best hand.
Turn 4c, river 5h.
Jeff's 23 scoops a $200 pot. With a pair of threes.
That I had outkicked, and caught a better pair on the river.
I've played a lot of poker, and I've never seen that before. In the top 10 sickest hands for sure.
I went to Morongo on Sunday. SK and Mitch came along. SK and I played 2/5 and Mitch played $0.50/$1.
Lo and behold, I find Tim sitting at 2/5.
I get on the wait list and then get some food. SK and I play some blackjack. I lose like $70, and SK wins $50.
He laughs that he did better than me, so I pointed out that he is now only net -$1,250 in blackjack. He stopped talking.
I sat down on $2/$5 and bought in for $600. I also staked SK for $100. He sticks to short stack strategy and obv busts with AQh vs TT preflop.
Then he reloads on his own for $100, and wins like $200. Standard.
I ran pretty hot honestly. I won about $600 total, but I was up like $1,200 at one point. I got AA vs Tim, and he limp/reraised me lol. I just put a rack in and he folded. I lost a sidepot to a short stack with J8s, what Jeff calls "the super deluxe." In retrospect, when discussing with Winston, I think I should've made it like $350 or $400 opposed to $500, to keep Tim in. I had the potential to scoop like another $1,300 off of him.
Shrugs.
Mitch lost 3 buyins at 1/3. He played ok.
SK won like $200 by only playing like 20 hands the whole day.
Nate dropped by and I gave him $1,200 for a long term stake. According to a site called PartTimePoker, which is a staking site, long term multigame stakes are called heebs. I wonder how that was decided. Anyways, I gave Nate $1,200 to play 6/12 and lower limit hold'em. He is a very good limit player, and the agreement is a 60/40 cut for the backer. He doesn't have a bankroll right now, so he's looking to find a way to build one. Assuming he doesn't run terrible, this should be profitable for both of us.
Rob went to the Las Vegas with his fiance on Friday. He played the $1,500 WSOP event #39 on Saturday. He made day 2, and cashed for about $3,100. I think he was like 172 place out of 2700+. Very nice job Rob.
Then we played another home game at Rob's house. Jenaya (his fiance) wanted to learn how to play Hold'em a bit better, so we played a casual game. I sucked out on Winston once, and then didn't catch anything for the rest of the night. Shrugs. I wasn't playing very seriously, I was mostly just enjoying it. Once again Tim was there, and once again Tim took all my money. -$120 there.
It's been a fun week, gotta say. Winston wants to start golfing regularly. It does seem like something I would enjoy, so I might actually try it out seriously.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Progress Report #17, Table Talk, Satellites, and new goals
So while Rob was playing, he might have just found the most entertaining table chat I've ever seen on Full Tilt.
---
bg1481: tryin value as much as possible off my hand
cmentd: suckout artist then eh?
Junior71: but not whinning
(Observer): I'm a suckout artist....under the table
cmentd: thanx, i'll note that
cmentd: hey junior?
Junior71: yes
cmentd: the biggest question i have as i look at all of our stats is...
Junior71: yes
cmentd: who is winning all the $$??cmentd: we all have -roi's
Junior71: not me
Junior71: i do this for fun
cmentd: except 4 bg
bg1481: do i have -roi?
bg1481: whats mine
cmentd: no
bg1481: idk how look
cmentd: +6
bg1481: eww
bg1481: ok
cmentd: %
cmentd: but in the last 120 days no big wins in tourneys
cmentd: according to the site
bg1481: right right
cmentd: official poker
bg1481: not played to much lately
cmentd: since april ive won 20K live
Edubb08: in the money 15-18% isnt bad...hard to win at low stakes
cmentd: there's hee haws at every level tho
cmentd: i won 2 live tourneys last week 40 & 50 buyins
Dealer: cmentd shows [Ks Kc]
Dealer: bsanders021 shows [Ah Jc]
Dealer: cmentd shows two pair, Kings and Eights
Dealer: bsanders021 shows two pair, Aces and Eights
Dealer: bsanders021 wins the pot (5,520) with two pair, Aces and Eights
cmentd: of course
cmentd: i expected it
cmentd: it is absolutely ridiculius
cmentd: i have an ongoing talk with FT security
cmentd: about this BS
(Observer): LOL
cmentd: that people know whats coming
(Observer): omg this is So going on 2+2
cmentd: how else can one explain it?
(Observer): is the next revelation coming?
cmentd: i mean EVERY TIME?
cmentd: cmon
(Observer): just like colt 45
(Observer): works everytime
---
Since my last post
Live Cash Games: -$200
Online Cash Games: +$652.60
Tournaments:
Net since last post: -$1,206.72
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$2,869
Online cash games: +$1,137.68
Online Tournaments: +$7,867.72
Net winnings this year: +$11,874.4
I tried to satellite into the World Series of Poker Main Event. I risked about $1,000 on it.
$109 to get into the $535 satellite.
$535 to get a 12k package.
$370 to get a 12.5k package.
Busted everything.
I felt I was about somewhere between a 5:1 and 10:1 dog to win a seat in either event.
So I was risking $535 to win $12,000, laying me a little worse than 22:1 odds.
Obviously its even better for the other tournament.
My new goal is to win $2,000 a month. We'll see if that's doable. I have a jumpstart in June, it's from July on out I'm more concerned about. I've done ok since I've won the tournament, let's just see if I can maintain that.
Winston wants to know if I can stake him. I'm probably gonna stake him in a few tourneys and hope he runs hot. If he doesn't win, shrug, w/e.
Been kinda busy lately. I'll try to get to work on another strategy post soon.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
---
bg1481: tryin value as much as possible off my hand
cmentd: suckout artist then eh?
Junior71: but not whinning
(Observer): I'm a suckout artist....under the table
cmentd: thanx, i'll note that
cmentd: hey junior?
Junior71: yes
cmentd: the biggest question i have as i look at all of our stats is...
Junior71: yes
cmentd: who is winning all the $$??cmentd: we all have -roi's
Junior71: not me
Junior71: i do this for fun
cmentd: except 4 bg
bg1481: do i have -roi?
bg1481: whats mine
cmentd: no
bg1481: idk how look
cmentd: +6
bg1481: eww
bg1481: ok
cmentd: %
cmentd: but in the last 120 days no big wins in tourneys
cmentd: according to the site
bg1481: right right
cmentd: official poker
bg1481: not played to much lately
cmentd: since april ive won 20K live
Edubb08: in the money 15-18% isnt bad...hard to win at low stakes
cmentd: there's hee haws at every level tho
cmentd: i won 2 live tourneys last week 40 & 50 buyins
Dealer: cmentd shows [Ks Kc]
Dealer: bsanders021 shows [Ah Jc]
Dealer: cmentd shows two pair, Kings and Eights
Dealer: bsanders021 shows two pair, Aces and Eights
Dealer: bsanders021 wins the pot (5,520) with two pair, Aces and Eights
cmentd: of course
cmentd: i expected it
cmentd: it is absolutely ridiculius
cmentd: i have an ongoing talk with FT security
cmentd: about this BS
(Observer): LOL
cmentd: that people know whats coming
(Observer): omg this is So going on 2+2
cmentd: how else can one explain it?
(Observer): is the next revelation coming?
cmentd: i mean EVERY TIME?
cmentd: cmon
(Observer): just like colt 45
(Observer): works everytime
---
Since my last post
Live Cash Games: -$200
Online Cash Games: +$652.60
Tournaments:
Net since last post: -$1,206.72
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$2,869
Online cash games: +$1,137.68
Online Tournaments: +$7,867.72
Net winnings this year: +$11,874.4
I tried to satellite into the World Series of Poker Main Event. I risked about $1,000 on it.
$109 to get into the $535 satellite.
$535 to get a 12k package.
$370 to get a 12.5k package.
Busted everything.
I felt I was about somewhere between a 5:1 and 10:1 dog to win a seat in either event.
So I was risking $535 to win $12,000, laying me a little worse than 22:1 odds.
Obviously its even better for the other tournament.
My new goal is to win $2,000 a month. We'll see if that's doable. I have a jumpstart in June, it's from July on out I'm more concerned about. I've done ok since I've won the tournament, let's just see if I can maintain that.
Winston wants to know if I can stake him. I'm probably gonna stake him in a few tourneys and hope he runs hot. If he doesn't win, shrug, w/e.
Been kinda busy lately. I'll try to get to work on another strategy post soon.
I'll see you across the felt.
Bryce
Monday, June 2, 2008
Progress Post #16: Heads Up in the 32k... wait he disconnected?
Since my last post
Live Cash Games: -$40
Online Cash Games: -$299.85
Tournaments: +$6,990.15
Net since last post: +$6,650.30
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$3,069
Online cash games: +$485.08
Online Tournaments: +$9,074.47
Net winnings this year: +$12,628.55
I withdrew 2200 on PokerWorld. Then I busted the remaining $700 in my roll in a 3/6 HU game. OESFD vs a turned two pair. He held.
So I had Winston ship me $200 on FTP, so I could play the MSOP events.
I played the $109 pot limit hold'em super stack event. I cashed although didn't go very deep.
Next I played the $16.5 NL Hold'Em event, and cashed in that too.
I played some cash games and built up my roll a little. I was up to like $300, and I bought into the Sunday Million. I lost like 90% of my stack when I rivered TPTK with AQ, and he had AA. It was ugly.
I rebuilt and stay alive for a while. Then I busted on a flip.
So frustrated, I bought into a bunch of events. I busted all of them and finally I was just down to the $32k with $0 in my bankroll on FTP.
edit: I ran out of battery, and don't feel like finishing this. Long story short, I ran hot, played well and final tabled. I ran over my weak tight table, and went HU and dominated him. When I had a 4:1 chip lead, he disconnected, and I jacked his blinds and won.
Bankroll on FTP alive and well.
Live Cash Games: -$40
Online Cash Games: -$299.85
Tournaments: +$6,990.15
Net since last post: +$6,650.30
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$3,069
Online cash games: +$485.08
Online Tournaments: +$9,074.47
Net winnings this year: +$12,628.55
I withdrew 2200 on PokerWorld. Then I busted the remaining $700 in my roll in a 3/6 HU game. OESFD vs a turned two pair. He held.
So I had Winston ship me $200 on FTP, so I could play the MSOP events.
I played the $109 pot limit hold'em super stack event. I cashed although didn't go very deep.
Next I played the $16.5 NL Hold'Em event, and cashed in that too.
I played some cash games and built up my roll a little. I was up to like $300, and I bought into the Sunday Million. I lost like 90% of my stack when I rivered TPTK with AQ, and he had AA. It was ugly.
I rebuilt and stay alive for a while. Then I busted on a flip.
So frustrated, I bought into a bunch of events. I busted all of them and finally I was just down to the $32k with $0 in my bankroll on FTP.
edit: I ran out of battery, and don't feel like finishing this. Long story short, I ran hot, played well and final tabled. I ran over my weak tight table, and went HU and dominated him. When I had a 4:1 chip lead, he disconnected, and I jacked his blinds and won.
Bankroll on FTP alive and well.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
News Flash from the poker world and more fun FTP stuff.
Today Ultimate Bet made a press release. The finally admited to the cheating scandal that plagued their site for a while now.
The member's of the 2+2 community and other online poker sites used statistical data to determine that some players were cheating. They had an unfair advantage and could see other players hole cards.
It happened on Absolute Poker last year.
Both Ultimate Bet and Absolute hax are owned by the same company. Suprise suprise.
While it rocks the boat on the concept that online poker is safe and secure, for the most part all the other sites seem legitimate.
This post is a good explanation of the cheating at AP. The cover up sure doesn't do them any good.
http://www.poker-prop.net/forum/f23/absolute-poker-ultimate-bet-unethical-142/
This is the summary of the press release from UB. It was handled better than AP, but they don't really mention the fact that they are likely connected or even mention AP at all. They are owned by the same company... you think it would come up.
http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-news/2008/may/nionio-findings
It's a little disconcerting, but I'm not really that worried. I don't plan to play on UB and AP at all, so it's not that worrying to me. I'm rather confidant that Pokerstars and Full Tilt's business practices are better and more ethical than UB and AP, so I'm not concerned. Regardless, it's bad for online poker's reputation.
On the brighter side, look! New toys from FTP. It's pretty neat. I always loved the commercials, they are fun to watch. There is a little bit of lag which can be negated if you let it load a bit longer, but it's still neat. One downside is you have to refresh the page to see a different commercial. My favorite though is definitely The Mouth and Allen Cunningham. Hahahhahahahhaha...
The member's of the 2+2 community and other online poker sites used statistical data to determine that some players were cheating. They had an unfair advantage and could see other players hole cards.
It happened on Absolute Poker last year.
Both Ultimate Bet and Absolute hax are owned by the same company. Suprise suprise.
While it rocks the boat on the concept that online poker is safe and secure, for the most part all the other sites seem legitimate.
This post is a good explanation of the cheating at AP. The cover up sure doesn't do them any good.
http://www.poker-prop.net/forum/f23/absolute-poker-ultimate-bet-unethical-142/
This is the summary of the press release from UB. It was handled better than AP, but they don't really mention the fact that they are likely connected or even mention AP at all. They are owned by the same company... you think it would come up.
http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-news/2008/may/nionio-findings
It's a little disconcerting, but I'm not really that worried. I don't plan to play on UB and AP at all, so it's not that worrying to me. I'm rather confidant that Pokerstars and Full Tilt's business practices are better and more ethical than UB and AP, so I'm not concerned. Regardless, it's bad for online poker's reputation.
On the brighter side, look! New toys from FTP. It's pretty neat. I always loved the commercials, they are fun to watch. There is a little bit of lag which can be negated if you let it load a bit longer, but it's still neat. One downside is you have to refresh the page to see a different commercial. My favorite though is definitely The Mouth and Allen Cunningham. Hahahhahahahhaha...
No Limit Strategy #4: Preflop Aggresiveness with AK
Ace King is one of the strongest hands in No Limit Hold'Em. The fact is AK is strong enough to justify moving in preflop for your entire stack in most situations.
You get a tl;dr warning here. (too long, don't read) This is the longest post I've written so far and by a good margin.
The dreaded Ace King. Dreaded because of how much trouble it gives beginners. In reality, AK is one of the harder hands to play in the game. Much of the time, it is a favorite preflop or very minor dog. But postflop Ace King, rarely makes more than one pair. However, there is sometimes a simple solution to playing Big Slick that makes life easy on you. And luckily, it's often the most profitable play you can make.
Push all in.
Hahaha... That probably needs some explanation.
When you have AK and are facing a reraise preflop, you should often move all in. You are only dominated by AA and KK, flip with QQ-22 and beat all other hands. In fact, you dominate nearly every non-pocketpair that would call a preflop all in. However, as nearly everything in poker, this play is player dependant. Obviously if you are against someone who only reraises AA and KK, you shouldn't make this play. Against someone who reraises a very wide range of hands and commits a lot of money postflop, it could be better to trap.
Regardless quite often it's correct to reraise all in with AK depending on your stack size. If you have 100bb or less it's often profitable. I wrote up a lot of information on it that I'll add at the end.
Let's examine all our options with AK.
Assuming we are at a full 9 handed table and are UTG. Our opponents are not very strong and have stacks ranging for 20bb to 200bb. You cover everyone at the table. First let's examine our options and lay out a plan for each one.
Fold. Not happening. AK is way to good to be folding UTG. If you fold this, what do you play? Folding AK here is a big mistake.
Call. An interesting play that gives you some options when the action comes back around. The danger is that the action might not come back you and you'll play a limped pot with AK multiway. Not really stellar, but assuming you can get away from it postflop, you can probably still turn a profit postflop.
On the other hand, if someone raises, a new set of options arises. You could call and see a flop, you could reraise or you could fold.
Again folding is almost never correct, you should definitely at least call unless they are extremely tight as in they raise more hands that dominate AK than hands that don't.
Calling can put you in a tricky spot. This is partly because if they have an Ace or King it's less likely you'll hit and therefore you'll miss more often. If they don't they aren't likely to give you action unless they can beat top pair. Your best case scenario is for them to have a dominated hand and give you action, but the odds of that are about the same odds as flopping a set, since you have 2 cards to improve both your hands simultaneously. Doesn't look to hot, but you should call occasionally to mix up your game.
Raising is probably the best choice. Now that you limped in and trapped some money in the middle, a reraise gives you a chance to win the pot immediately and fold out some hands that you coinflip with. It also gives you initiative allowing you to take down the pot postflop a large majority of the time, even when you miss. If you get 4bet here, carefully examine your opponent and his actions. If it fits with ONLY AA and KK fold. Otherwise you should probably move all in/call all in if you have less than 100bb.
Now back to our third option, opening the pot for a raise.
Raising first in gives you the chance to win the blinds immediately (never a terrible result, it's always better to win a small pot than lose a big one), get called by hands you beat (and therefore raise for value), fold out pocket pairs occasionally (and you gain because you will miss often), and build a pot if you hit. Aggresive poker is winning poker.
There are 3 results if you raise.
Everyone folds.
1+ people call.
Someone raises, possibly there are callers of either raise.
If someone calls, you should probably continuation bet. However postflop play is beyond the scope of this post.
Someone raises.
This is where it gets interesting. You could call, shove, or reraise less than all in.
The last two options are pretty close to the same for AK. If you reraise less than all in, you're going to be pot committed to call a shove nearly everytime. If they just call, you're probably going to cbet all in on every flop.
Now lets us examine calling vs shoving.
/puts on nerd glasses
Everything beyond this is a copy and paste of a word article I written previously. It's a rather intesive analysis of 4bet shoving AK vs calling a reraise with it.
----------
This examines the merits of 4 bet shoving AKo preflop, opposed to calling with it. It does not examine whether or not AK should be 4bet for less than 100bb compared to shoving it.
I used a very simple formula of outs x 2% per card on the flop. I couldn’t remember the exact numbers, but it's pretty close to 2% I think.
This is why I 4bet shove AK, feel free to slaughter my argument or point out flaws in my math.
My 3bet range at 100nl was like 77+, AJs+, AQ+, KQs, A2s-A5s sometimes, some suited connectors.
His range probably isn’t that wide, but let’s says it is. (so we can analyze what we do with AK vs different hands) And we can figure out why we 4 bet AK.
Lets say you open to 3.5bb, he makes it 12bb.
It folds back to you. Pot is currently 17bb. Rake is 6bb at 50nl when stacks get in.
This is where it gets interesting. We're going to group the different hands and analyze how AK plays against them.
Group 1 - Dominated hands; AJ, AQ, KQ (and other dominated Aces and Kings)
When you push for 100bb, you WANT a call from these hands. Poker stove says your equity is 68.875% against this range of dominated hands. That means when all the chips go in the middle you get back 69% of the 195 bb pot. (The missing big blinds are the rake. At $100+, I'm going to say they rake $3 since most poker rooms cap at $3) that means when they call you win 135.93bb, or a profit of 36bb. However they usually don’t call when you 4bet push with these hands, so you net a 17 bb profit.
But if you want to play against these hands, why aren't you calling? We raise for value here. We also don't want to miss and suddenly try to figure out whether we are good vs a whiffed AJ, or drawing to 3 outs vs KK or facing a flush draw from T9s. Cramming preflop gives you control of the hand again, and prevents you from making a postflop mistake.
Against Group 1, pushing gets you an expected net of 17bb assuming you are never called.
Group 2 – Pocket Pairs lower than QQ; 22-QQ, and also AK.
When you push for 100bb, you want your opponent to fold. When they fold you win 17bb. On average you will lose 9bb when you are called. That means if they fold 53% of the time this is a +EV play of .01bb. Usually they will fold more than that. If they only reraise TT – QQ, when you 4bet shove, most people will find it extremely difficult to call with TT or JJ. Your raise represents QQ+, AK. Against that range JJ and TT only have 36% equity, and your large overbet shove means that they need to fold as they are now priced out.
Usually they will fold QQ some of the time too. Generally you can expect to get called about these percentages. TT 20%, JJ 50%, QQ 85%. That’s fewer than the 53% (actually its 51.666% repeating) you need to turn a profit, and it gets even better if they raise hands lower than TT.
Against group 2, your expected return is about break even, assuming they call at the exact above ratio, 53%, and never 3bet pocket pairs less than TT.
Group 3 - Suited Connectors
against 76s we have 59% equity. When we push we expect to get back 115bb and risk 96bb. We profit 19bb, which is marginally different from the 17bb we expect to pick up if he folds. (and trust me unless he's terrible, he's folding)
Against group 3 – expected profit of 17bb.
Group 4 - AA and KK.
They aren't folding and our equity here is a terrible 19.636%. If you call it's because you dont want to stack off to these hands. We only get back 38bb putting our play at a -58bb if they have these hands. specifically against KK we have an expected return of 60bb, and against AA we have a return of 15.6bb
Against Group 4 we have an expected loss of 58bb.
While this looks terrible, keep in mind that some catagories are far more likely than others.
Now none of this factors in postflop play. Let's do that now.
If we call, AND plan to c/f a whiffed flop.
Group 1. Dominated hands.
If we connect with our 2 outer and stack them, that's awesome and our best case scenario. The odds of flopping one of the two remaining aces is about 12.5% (same odds as flopping a set, so keep that in mind, since that’s basically what we're aiming to do.)
Generally a TAG will fold if they flop air, and get their cbet when we c/r in a reraised pot. If we call, we should check to them to pick up a cbet when they have air. So we connect with one of our 5 outs about 30% of the time. We will win the 17bb in the pot + a cbet ranging from 10-17bb. We can say 13 for ease of calculation. When they miss, you hit you win 30bb.
So one of 3 things happens.
1) You both hit top pair, and you stack them. You profit 13.5bb (the money you invest that you lose if you don't win) + 100bb (their stack) - 6bb for the rake. That's a net of 107.5bb. It happens 12.5% of the time so let's do some math.
107.5*0.125= 13.5bb when we call for this scenario. That doesn't include the times they outdraw you either.
Results for scenario 1: 13.5bb
2) You connect, they don’t, you win 30bb. This is pretty straight forward. We c/r their bet they fold. We win 30bb. This will happen the other 18.5% of the time we connect. 30*0.185 = 5.55bb
3) We miss, and c/f. We lose 7.5bb. This will happen about 70% of the time. -8.5 * 0.7 = -5.95bb.
Add them up you get 12.9bb for calling against this group.
So when they have a dominated hand, our expect return is 4bb less than if we shove.
group 2. Coinflips. i.e. Pocket pairs
There are 2 sub groups actually. AK and 77-QQ.
We run the same scenarios
vs AK
1) We hit, they hit. When they have AK, we have 4 outs to hit to a CHOP (this obv changes if we have AKs, but I'm going to ignore that for now). This will happen about 24% of the time. When this happens we get back half of 195bb, or 97.5bb for a profit of 1.5bb 24% of the time. 0.36bb profit. Not too hot but at least its profit.
2) We both miss. We fold to his cbet, he wins a pot we could've chopped. -7.5bb* 76% = -5.7bb when we miss.
So when he has AK we have a net loss of 5.34bb. Not too good. Especially considering when we shove and he folds, we win 17bb and when he calls we have a marginal win of 1.5bb
Pocket pairs.
1) We hit, they hit. We lose our stack. We will hit about 36% of the time. To do that, we need to use one of the possible cards on the flop. So they have two cards to spike a set with two outs. It will happen 8% of the time WE hit.
So 0.36*0.08 = 2.88% One in 40 times this will happen. We can expect to lose our entire stack (after all we called to get AI on a flop we hit)
This means we lose 96bb. 96*0.0288 = -2.76bb
2) We hit, they miss. We c/r and while they may stack off QQ on a king high flop, I'm just going to assume, they don't to keep the math simpler. We will win 30bb. This will happen 36% of the time, except for the times they have a set. So 0.36-0.0288 = .3312 33.12% of the time we win 30bb.
30*0.3312 = 9.936bb.
3) You miss. You lose 8.5bb 64% of the time. 8.5*0.64= -5.44bb
When he has a pocket pair under KK you win 1.736bb.
Slightly better than pushing.
There are 9 combos of AK, and 30 combos of 77 – QQ.
The net is (0.23 * -5.34bb) + ( 0.769 * 1.736bb) = 0.10678bb
Practically 0, much like shoving.
Group 3 - Suited Connectors,
1) You hit, they hit better. It won't happen too often. And sometimes you'll out draw them. The equity calculation for it isn't too different from the pocket pair issue, so I'll just assume it's the same. Sorry my math skills just aren't up to figure this out right now. We can drop this a little bit since when they flop two pair we can draw out much easier.
-2.5bb.
2) We hit, they miss (something they won't call a check raise with. say less than top pair) We win 30bb. This will happen about 36% (less the chance of them flopping better which is covered above) of the time so same the same calculations as pocket pairs here. 9.936bb.
3) This is the same as pocket pairs too. -5.44bb
When he has a suited connector you win 1.99 bb.
(The difference in EV between group 2 and 3 is because AK is not in this catagory)
4)AA and KK.
I'm going to deal with them seperately.
Cowboys (KK)
3 scenarios.
1) You spike the 4th King. This obviously the worst case scenario for you since you will lose your entire stack. If you flop Aces and Kings you will catch on him 8% of the time, but don't count on it. The case king will come out 6% of the time. When it does you lose your stack, so that’s -96bb for you. -96bb * 0.06 = -5.76bb
2) The Ace magnets screw him over again.
You will flop one of your 3 outs about 18% of the time. When you do, you can probably expect him to cbet and you can snap it; 30bb for you. 30*0.18 = 5.4bb
(On a related note, checking behind kings when an ace hits is a good idea. I've read some very interesting theory on that.)
3) You miss. You lose 8.5bb 76% of the time. 8.5*0.76 = -6.46bb
Against kings you have an expected loss of -6.82bb
This is 53bb less than we can expect to lose if we shove.
Pocket Rockets (AA)
1) You hit, you're screwed. When he has AA, you will hit one of your 4 cards and lose your entire stack 24% of the time. -96 * 0.24 = -23.04bb
2) Thank god, you miss. You only lose 8.5bb 76% of the time.
8.5*0.76 = -6.46bb
We lose 29.5bb vs AA.
If we shove, we lose 80.4bb
against the group we have an expected loss of 43.61bb
In TOTAL.
If we call
Group 1) Dominated hands = 12.9 bb
Group 2) AK = -5.34 bb PP < KK = 1.73 bb
Net = 0.10 bb
Group 3) Suited Connectors
76s = 1.99 bb.
Group 4) AA and KK = -43.61bb
If we shove
Group 1) Dominated hands. They almost always fold, and it’s better for us if they call, so we will assume they won’t. 17bb.
Group 2) AK = 1.5bb if he always calls. He won’t ALWAYS call. PP = 0.01 bb if he folds exactly 53% of the time. In reality, fold more than that.
Group 3) Suited Connectors. Better for us if he calls so we’ll assume he won’t. 17bb.
Group 4) AA and KK. We get killed here and have an expect net loss of -58bb.
Compare the groups and think for a bit. Remember than AA and KK is less likely since we have an Ace and a King. In fact the odds of either is cut in half.
OK! So now that is out of the way.
Now the real question at hand, is what is he ACTUALLY 3betting us with. Just what is his range?
If it’s just TT+, and AJ+, there are 18 combinations of TT-QQ, 6 Combinations of AA-KK, and 24 combinations of AJ and AQ, and 9 combinations of AK. There are 57 combinations total.This means…AJ and AQ = 42.1% of the time. AK = 15.7% of the time.TT-QQ = 31.5% of the time.AA-KK = 10.5% of the time.
If we call we win ((0.421*12.9)+(0.157*-5.34)+(0.31*1.73)+(0.105*-43.61) = 0.54977bb
A net gain of 0.55bb
Now for cramming.
To figure the equity of shoving, we should figure how often pocket pairs fold here. I’d say TT folds about 90% of the time, JJ folds 60% of the time and QQ folds 10% of the time. Is that a fair assumption? Together that means they fold 53.3% of the time. How convenient. Now honestly ask yourself if you’re facing this kind of action, how often would you actually call with these hands.
But for now we’ll assume it’s a break even proposition. When it’s up against AK, how often does he fold that? Let’s say he folds 25% of the time. So 17*0.25 + 1.5*0.75= 5.375bb
So onto our calculation. We’ll assume he always folds hands we dominate because that’s our worst case scenario for those hands.If we shove, we win ((0.421*17)+(0.157*5.375)+(0.31*0)+(0.105*-58) = 1.910875
A net gain of 1.91bb.
This shows that for the exact same range, 4 bet shoving with 100bb is over 3x as profitable as calling.The question shouldn’t be do I call or 4 bet, the question is should I 4 bet or shove?However that’s a question for another day.
The tighter his range is the more you should consider folding, BUT not calling. There is no hand range that calling with AK is superior to raising or folding it assuming he is a decent player.
However, given his postflop play, it is possible that calling is superior. However it’s rare to find opponents that stack off with less than top pair, and other leaks that make calling AK superior, such as never cbetting when they miss.
This whole article was done under the assumption you have 100bb stacks (common online) and you are out of position. As stack sizes increase, shoving AK because less profitable. The opposite is also true. This is why folding AK in tournaments preflop to a 3bet that is often a huge mistake.
As a note, I realize in this post I've been a little inconsistent with bet sizes, I said 3.5bb as original raise, yet I mentioned losing 96bb not 96.5bb. Sorry for this, but I'm not up to fixing it for now. The difference is negligible. All of my calculations were based off AKo and AKs combined btw.
See you across the felt.
Bryce
You get a tl;dr warning here. (too long, don't read) This is the longest post I've written so far and by a good margin.
The dreaded Ace King. Dreaded because of how much trouble it gives beginners. In reality, AK is one of the harder hands to play in the game. Much of the time, it is a favorite preflop or very minor dog. But postflop Ace King, rarely makes more than one pair. However, there is sometimes a simple solution to playing Big Slick that makes life easy on you. And luckily, it's often the most profitable play you can make.
Push all in.
Hahaha... That probably needs some explanation.
When you have AK and are facing a reraise preflop, you should often move all in. You are only dominated by AA and KK, flip with QQ-22 and beat all other hands. In fact, you dominate nearly every non-pocketpair that would call a preflop all in. However, as nearly everything in poker, this play is player dependant. Obviously if you are against someone who only reraises AA and KK, you shouldn't make this play. Against someone who reraises a very wide range of hands and commits a lot of money postflop, it could be better to trap.
Regardless quite often it's correct to reraise all in with AK depending on your stack size. If you have 100bb or less it's often profitable. I wrote up a lot of information on it that I'll add at the end.
Let's examine all our options with AK.
Assuming we are at a full 9 handed table and are UTG. Our opponents are not very strong and have stacks ranging for 20bb to 200bb. You cover everyone at the table. First let's examine our options and lay out a plan for each one.
Fold. Not happening. AK is way to good to be folding UTG. If you fold this, what do you play? Folding AK here is a big mistake.
Call. An interesting play that gives you some options when the action comes back around. The danger is that the action might not come back you and you'll play a limped pot with AK multiway. Not really stellar, but assuming you can get away from it postflop, you can probably still turn a profit postflop.
On the other hand, if someone raises, a new set of options arises. You could call and see a flop, you could reraise or you could fold.
Again folding is almost never correct, you should definitely at least call unless they are extremely tight as in they raise more hands that dominate AK than hands that don't.
Calling can put you in a tricky spot. This is partly because if they have an Ace or King it's less likely you'll hit and therefore you'll miss more often. If they don't they aren't likely to give you action unless they can beat top pair. Your best case scenario is for them to have a dominated hand and give you action, but the odds of that are about the same odds as flopping a set, since you have 2 cards to improve both your hands simultaneously. Doesn't look to hot, but you should call occasionally to mix up your game.
Raising is probably the best choice. Now that you limped in and trapped some money in the middle, a reraise gives you a chance to win the pot immediately and fold out some hands that you coinflip with. It also gives you initiative allowing you to take down the pot postflop a large majority of the time, even when you miss. If you get 4bet here, carefully examine your opponent and his actions. If it fits with ONLY AA and KK fold. Otherwise you should probably move all in/call all in if you have less than 100bb.
Now back to our third option, opening the pot for a raise.
Raising first in gives you the chance to win the blinds immediately (never a terrible result, it's always better to win a small pot than lose a big one), get called by hands you beat (and therefore raise for value), fold out pocket pairs occasionally (and you gain because you will miss often), and build a pot if you hit. Aggresive poker is winning poker.
There are 3 results if you raise.
Everyone folds.
1+ people call.
Someone raises, possibly there are callers of either raise.
If someone calls, you should probably continuation bet. However postflop play is beyond the scope of this post.
Someone raises.
This is where it gets interesting. You could call, shove, or reraise less than all in.
The last two options are pretty close to the same for AK. If you reraise less than all in, you're going to be pot committed to call a shove nearly everytime. If they just call, you're probably going to cbet all in on every flop.
Now lets us examine calling vs shoving.
/puts on nerd glasses
Everything beyond this is a copy and paste of a word article I written previously. It's a rather intesive analysis of 4bet shoving AK vs calling a reraise with it.
----------
This examines the merits of 4 bet shoving AKo preflop, opposed to calling with it. It does not examine whether or not AK should be 4bet for less than 100bb compared to shoving it.
I used a very simple formula of outs x 2% per card on the flop. I couldn’t remember the exact numbers, but it's pretty close to 2% I think.
This is why I 4bet shove AK, feel free to slaughter my argument or point out flaws in my math.
My 3bet range at 100nl was like 77+, AJs+, AQ+, KQs, A2s-A5s sometimes, some suited connectors.
His range probably isn’t that wide, but let’s says it is. (so we can analyze what we do with AK vs different hands) And we can figure out why we 4 bet AK.
Lets say you open to 3.5bb, he makes it 12bb.
It folds back to you. Pot is currently 17bb. Rake is 6bb at 50nl when stacks get in.
This is where it gets interesting. We're going to group the different hands and analyze how AK plays against them.
Group 1 - Dominated hands; AJ, AQ, KQ (and other dominated Aces and Kings)
When you push for 100bb, you WANT a call from these hands. Poker stove says your equity is 68.875% against this range of dominated hands. That means when all the chips go in the middle you get back 69% of the 195 bb pot. (The missing big blinds are the rake. At $100+, I'm going to say they rake $3 since most poker rooms cap at $3) that means when they call you win 135.93bb, or a profit of 36bb. However they usually don’t call when you 4bet push with these hands, so you net a 17 bb profit.
But if you want to play against these hands, why aren't you calling? We raise for value here. We also don't want to miss and suddenly try to figure out whether we are good vs a whiffed AJ, or drawing to 3 outs vs KK or facing a flush draw from T9s. Cramming preflop gives you control of the hand again, and prevents you from making a postflop mistake.
Against Group 1, pushing gets you an expected net of 17bb assuming you are never called.
Group 2 – Pocket Pairs lower than QQ; 22-QQ, and also AK.
When you push for 100bb, you want your opponent to fold. When they fold you win 17bb. On average you will lose 9bb when you are called. That means if they fold 53% of the time this is a +EV play of .01bb. Usually they will fold more than that. If they only reraise TT – QQ, when you 4bet shove, most people will find it extremely difficult to call with TT or JJ. Your raise represents QQ+, AK. Against that range JJ and TT only have 36% equity, and your large overbet shove means that they need to fold as they are now priced out.
Usually they will fold QQ some of the time too. Generally you can expect to get called about these percentages. TT 20%, JJ 50%, QQ 85%. That’s fewer than the 53% (actually its 51.666% repeating) you need to turn a profit, and it gets even better if they raise hands lower than TT.
Against group 2, your expected return is about break even, assuming they call at the exact above ratio, 53%, and never 3bet pocket pairs less than TT.
Group 3 - Suited Connectors
against 76s we have 59% equity. When we push we expect to get back 115bb and risk 96bb. We profit 19bb, which is marginally different from the 17bb we expect to pick up if he folds. (and trust me unless he's terrible, he's folding)
Against group 3 – expected profit of 17bb.
Group 4 - AA and KK.
They aren't folding and our equity here is a terrible 19.636%. If you call it's because you dont want to stack off to these hands. We only get back 38bb putting our play at a -58bb if they have these hands. specifically against KK we have an expected return of 60bb, and against AA we have a return of 15.6bb
Against Group 4 we have an expected loss of 58bb.
While this looks terrible, keep in mind that some catagories are far more likely than others.
Now none of this factors in postflop play. Let's do that now.
If we call, AND plan to c/f a whiffed flop.
Group 1. Dominated hands.
If we connect with our 2 outer and stack them, that's awesome and our best case scenario. The odds of flopping one of the two remaining aces is about 12.5% (same odds as flopping a set, so keep that in mind, since that’s basically what we're aiming to do.)
Generally a TAG will fold if they flop air, and get their cbet when we c/r in a reraised pot. If we call, we should check to them to pick up a cbet when they have air. So we connect with one of our 5 outs about 30% of the time. We will win the 17bb in the pot + a cbet ranging from 10-17bb. We can say 13 for ease of calculation. When they miss, you hit you win 30bb.
So one of 3 things happens.
1) You both hit top pair, and you stack them. You profit 13.5bb (the money you invest that you lose if you don't win) + 100bb (their stack) - 6bb for the rake. That's a net of 107.5bb. It happens 12.5% of the time so let's do some math.
107.5*0.125= 13.5bb when we call for this scenario. That doesn't include the times they outdraw you either.
Results for scenario 1: 13.5bb
2) You connect, they don’t, you win 30bb. This is pretty straight forward. We c/r their bet they fold. We win 30bb. This will happen the other 18.5% of the time we connect. 30*0.185 = 5.55bb
3) We miss, and c/f. We lose 7.5bb. This will happen about 70% of the time. -8.5 * 0.7 = -5.95bb.
Add them up you get 12.9bb for calling against this group.
So when they have a dominated hand, our expect return is 4bb less than if we shove.
group 2. Coinflips. i.e. Pocket pairs
There are 2 sub groups actually. AK and 77-QQ.
We run the same scenarios
vs AK
1) We hit, they hit. When they have AK, we have 4 outs to hit to a CHOP (this obv changes if we have AKs, but I'm going to ignore that for now). This will happen about 24% of the time. When this happens we get back half of 195bb, or 97.5bb for a profit of 1.5bb 24% of the time. 0.36bb profit. Not too hot but at least its profit.
2) We both miss. We fold to his cbet, he wins a pot we could've chopped. -7.5bb* 76% = -5.7bb when we miss.
So when he has AK we have a net loss of 5.34bb. Not too good. Especially considering when we shove and he folds, we win 17bb and when he calls we have a marginal win of 1.5bb
Pocket pairs.
1) We hit, they hit. We lose our stack. We will hit about 36% of the time. To do that, we need to use one of the possible cards on the flop. So they have two cards to spike a set with two outs. It will happen 8% of the time WE hit.
So 0.36*0.08 = 2.88% One in 40 times this will happen. We can expect to lose our entire stack (after all we called to get AI on a flop we hit)
This means we lose 96bb. 96*0.0288 = -2.76bb
2) We hit, they miss. We c/r and while they may stack off QQ on a king high flop, I'm just going to assume, they don't to keep the math simpler. We will win 30bb. This will happen 36% of the time, except for the times they have a set. So 0.36-0.0288 = .3312 33.12% of the time we win 30bb.
30*0.3312 = 9.936bb.
3) You miss. You lose 8.5bb 64% of the time. 8.5*0.64= -5.44bb
When he has a pocket pair under KK you win 1.736bb.
Slightly better than pushing.
There are 9 combos of AK, and 30 combos of 77 – QQ.
The net is (0.23 * -5.34bb) + ( 0.769 * 1.736bb) = 0.10678bb
Practically 0, much like shoving.
Group 3 - Suited Connectors,
1) You hit, they hit better. It won't happen too often. And sometimes you'll out draw them. The equity calculation for it isn't too different from the pocket pair issue, so I'll just assume it's the same. Sorry my math skills just aren't up to figure this out right now. We can drop this a little bit since when they flop two pair we can draw out much easier.
-2.5bb.
2) We hit, they miss (something they won't call a check raise with. say less than top pair) We win 30bb. This will happen about 36% (less the chance of them flopping better which is covered above) of the time so same the same calculations as pocket pairs here. 9.936bb.
3) This is the same as pocket pairs too. -5.44bb
When he has a suited connector you win 1.99 bb.
(The difference in EV between group 2 and 3 is because AK is not in this catagory)
4)AA and KK.
I'm going to deal with them seperately.
Cowboys (KK)
3 scenarios.
1) You spike the 4th King. This obviously the worst case scenario for you since you will lose your entire stack. If you flop Aces and Kings you will catch on him 8% of the time, but don't count on it. The case king will come out 6% of the time. When it does you lose your stack, so that’s -96bb for you. -96bb * 0.06 = -5.76bb
2) The Ace magnets screw him over again.
You will flop one of your 3 outs about 18% of the time. When you do, you can probably expect him to cbet and you can snap it; 30bb for you. 30*0.18 = 5.4bb
(On a related note, checking behind kings when an ace hits is a good idea. I've read some very interesting theory on that.)
3) You miss. You lose 8.5bb 76% of the time. 8.5*0.76 = -6.46bb
Against kings you have an expected loss of -6.82bb
This is 53bb less than we can expect to lose if we shove.
Pocket Rockets (AA)
1) You hit, you're screwed. When he has AA, you will hit one of your 4 cards and lose your entire stack 24% of the time. -96 * 0.24 = -23.04bb
2) Thank god, you miss. You only lose 8.5bb 76% of the time.
8.5*0.76 = -6.46bb
We lose 29.5bb vs AA.
If we shove, we lose 80.4bb
against the group we have an expected loss of 43.61bb
In TOTAL.
If we call
Group 1) Dominated hands = 12.9 bb
Group 2) AK = -5.34 bb PP < KK = 1.73 bb
Net = 0.10 bb
Group 3) Suited Connectors
76s = 1.99 bb.
Group 4) AA and KK = -43.61bb
If we shove
Group 1) Dominated hands. They almost always fold, and it’s better for us if they call, so we will assume they won’t. 17bb.
Group 2) AK = 1.5bb if he always calls. He won’t ALWAYS call. PP = 0.01 bb if he folds exactly 53% of the time. In reality, fold more than that.
Group 3) Suited Connectors. Better for us if he calls so we’ll assume he won’t. 17bb.
Group 4) AA and KK. We get killed here and have an expect net loss of -58bb.
Compare the groups and think for a bit. Remember than AA and KK is less likely since we have an Ace and a King. In fact the odds of either is cut in half.
OK! So now that is out of the way.
Now the real question at hand, is what is he ACTUALLY 3betting us with. Just what is his range?
If it’s just TT+, and AJ+, there are 18 combinations of TT-QQ, 6 Combinations of AA-KK, and 24 combinations of AJ and AQ, and 9 combinations of AK. There are 57 combinations total.This means…AJ and AQ = 42.1% of the time. AK = 15.7% of the time.TT-QQ = 31.5% of the time.AA-KK = 10.5% of the time.
If we call we win ((0.421*12.9)+(0.157*-5.34)+(0.31*1.73)+(0.105*-43.61) = 0.54977bb
A net gain of 0.55bb
Now for cramming.
To figure the equity of shoving, we should figure how often pocket pairs fold here. I’d say TT folds about 90% of the time, JJ folds 60% of the time and QQ folds 10% of the time. Is that a fair assumption? Together that means they fold 53.3% of the time. How convenient. Now honestly ask yourself if you’re facing this kind of action, how often would you actually call with these hands.
But for now we’ll assume it’s a break even proposition. When it’s up against AK, how often does he fold that? Let’s say he folds 25% of the time. So 17*0.25 + 1.5*0.75= 5.375bb
So onto our calculation. We’ll assume he always folds hands we dominate because that’s our worst case scenario for those hands.If we shove, we win ((0.421*17)+(0.157*5.375)+(0.31*0)+(0.105*-58) = 1.910875
A net gain of 1.91bb.
This shows that for the exact same range, 4 bet shoving with 100bb is over 3x as profitable as calling.The question shouldn’t be do I call or 4 bet, the question is should I 4 bet or shove?However that’s a question for another day.
The tighter his range is the more you should consider folding, BUT not calling. There is no hand range that calling with AK is superior to raising or folding it assuming he is a decent player.
However, given his postflop play, it is possible that calling is superior. However it’s rare to find opponents that stack off with less than top pair, and other leaks that make calling AK superior, such as never cbetting when they miss.
This whole article was done under the assumption you have 100bb stacks (common online) and you are out of position. As stack sizes increase, shoving AK because less profitable. The opposite is also true. This is why folding AK in tournaments preflop to a 3bet that is often a huge mistake.
As a note, I realize in this post I've been a little inconsistent with bet sizes, I said 3.5bb as original raise, yet I mentioned losing 96bb not 96.5bb. Sorry for this, but I'm not up to fixing it for now. The difference is negligible. All of my calculations were based off AKo and AKs combined btw.
See you across the felt.
Bryce
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Progress Post #15: Bronchitis sucks, Propping and Staking
So as of now, I'm still coughing out my lungs. Almost literally.
It seems I came down with a viral infection, and my lungs are inflamed. Therefore I have Bronchitis, and cough mucus out of my lungs an average of 30 times a day. Fun times.
At least it's better than pneumonia.
I got my rakeback on FTP and busted it trying to sat into the FTOPS ME. On the other hand, I've been killing this other site called PokerWorld. It usually has 500 people logged on at once.
Pokerstars usually has 100,000.
Gives you an idea how small the site is.
Since my last post
Live Cash Games: +$40
Online Cash Games: +$1837
Tournaments: -$389
Net since last post: +$1,488
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$3,109
Online cash games: +$784.93
Online Tournaments: +$2084.32
Net winnings this year: +$5,978.25
I'm trying to bank 10k by the end of the summer. We'll see if I get there.
I'm propping on Pokerworld. A prop is someone who is paid to play. Online poker rooms do this by offering high levels of rakeback. It actually makes perfect sense for them. And I'm loving the 75% rakeback I'm getting. Still I think I'd prefer Full Tilt, as the game selection is infinitely better.
Usually only small rooms offer propping. Bigger poker rooms have enough players that there is no need. They usually still offer rakeback though. Check the blog archive for details on rakeback.
I've also started trying out staking. It's interesting. Staking is when one person fronts a buyin for another into a cash game or tournament. Assuming the "Horse" or staked player wins, they split the profits in a pre determined agreement. It's a massively +ev scenario for the Horse who has no risk. The staker is offered the ability to earn money on his money, assuming he stakes good horses.
Usually the staker requires "cake" which is kind of like a loan. It's best explained in an example.
Staker A stakes Horse B into a $30 tournament. Horse B busts on the first hand set over set.
Due to their agreement, Horse B owes Staker A $30 in cake. However he is not required to pay this unless Staker A stakes Horse B again, and Horse B turns a profit.
Later Staker A stakes Horse B into a $50 tournament. This time Horse B wins and takes down $5500, at an agreed 50% split.
First Staker A gets back $50, which is the buyin. Then he gets $30 in cake, to cover previous busted stakes. Then they split the remaining $5,420 at 50% each.
Cake is meant so that stakeing a +ev player will always be +ev for both the staker and the horse.
Jeff has started staking me online into some tourneys on FTP. To date I've turned a profit for him, albeit a small one.
I've also started trying out staking on Parttimepoker.com although it's rather hard to build a reputation.
I'm gonna try to grind out a hundred a day for the rest of the summer. We'll see how it goes. Obviously, I can't post a winning day every day, but a $200 day would count for 2. School starts back up at the end of August, so assuming I grind 100 a day, I should have won around $7.5k
Wish me luck, it always helps.
See you across the felt.
Bryce
It seems I came down with a viral infection, and my lungs are inflamed. Therefore I have Bronchitis, and cough mucus out of my lungs an average of 30 times a day. Fun times.
At least it's better than pneumonia.
I got my rakeback on FTP and busted it trying to sat into the FTOPS ME. On the other hand, I've been killing this other site called PokerWorld. It usually has 500 people logged on at once.
Pokerstars usually has 100,000.
Gives you an idea how small the site is.
Since my last post
Live Cash Games: +$40
Online Cash Games: +$1837
Tournaments: -$389
Net since last post: +$1,488
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$3,109
Online cash games: +$784.93
Online Tournaments: +$2084.32
Net winnings this year: +$5,978.25
I'm trying to bank 10k by the end of the summer. We'll see if I get there.
I'm propping on Pokerworld. A prop is someone who is paid to play. Online poker rooms do this by offering high levels of rakeback. It actually makes perfect sense for them. And I'm loving the 75% rakeback I'm getting. Still I think I'd prefer Full Tilt, as the game selection is infinitely better.
Usually only small rooms offer propping. Bigger poker rooms have enough players that there is no need. They usually still offer rakeback though. Check the blog archive for details on rakeback.
I've also started trying out staking. It's interesting. Staking is when one person fronts a buyin for another into a cash game or tournament. Assuming the "Horse" or staked player wins, they split the profits in a pre determined agreement. It's a massively +ev scenario for the Horse who has no risk. The staker is offered the ability to earn money on his money, assuming he stakes good horses.
Usually the staker requires "cake" which is kind of like a loan. It's best explained in an example.
Staker A stakes Horse B into a $30 tournament. Horse B busts on the first hand set over set.
Due to their agreement, Horse B owes Staker A $30 in cake. However he is not required to pay this unless Staker A stakes Horse B again, and Horse B turns a profit.
Later Staker A stakes Horse B into a $50 tournament. This time Horse B wins and takes down $5500, at an agreed 50% split.
First Staker A gets back $50, which is the buyin. Then he gets $30 in cake, to cover previous busted stakes. Then they split the remaining $5,420 at 50% each.
Cake is meant so that stakeing a +ev player will always be +ev for both the staker and the horse.
Jeff has started staking me online into some tourneys on FTP. To date I've turned a profit for him, albeit a small one.
I've also started trying out staking on Parttimepoker.com although it's rather hard to build a reputation.
I'm gonna try to grind out a hundred a day for the rest of the summer. We'll see how it goes. Obviously, I can't post a winning day every day, but a $200 day would count for 2. School starts back up at the end of August, so assuming I grind 100 a day, I should have won around $7.5k
Wish me luck, it always helps.
See you across the felt.
Bryce
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