Well... All that money I won last week, I just lost and then some. I was pretty unlucky. I ran way below expectation on some very big hands.
Poker results since last post
Live games: -$700
Online cash game play: -$10
Online Tournaments: -$38
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: -$484
Online cash games: -$128.2
Online Tournaments: +$2,429
I ran pretty bad. These are the spots where I got all in, and my equity in those spots.
I bought in for $100.
I got AKs all in preflop for $150. Somehow all 4 players managed to get it in.
Zach: AsKs
Winston: 77
Rob: 22
Me: AdKd
Result: Winston flops a set and wins.
Pot size: about $600
My expected return: $119.79
In theory, I should expect to get $119.79 out of that pot. While that's not too good, frankly Rob shouldn't have called the huge preflop All in with 22, and if he didn't Winston wouldn't have called with 77. It just worked out well for Winston.
Bought in for another $100.
Zach: KK
Me: QQ
Pot size: About $225
Result: All in preflop and Zach hold up.
My expected return: $42.18
That's pretty bad, but that's what happens when you get into an 80/20. I feel this was a cooler and I'm almost never laying down QQ preflop given the flow of the game.
Bought in for another $100
Rob: KK
Me: QQ
Pot size: About $225 again.
Result: All in preflop again and Rob holds up. Again.
Expected Return: $42.18. Same as above, logic same as above.
Bought in for another $200
Zach: QQ
Me: AsKs
Pot size: $200
Result: All in preflop, and I actually win this one.
Expected Return: $92.42, I won $200 so I won $108.58 than expecation.
Winston: AsTs
Me: AdKd
Pot size: about $450
Result: All in preflop, and Winston sucks out. Figures.
Expected Return: $318.60 I have about 70% equity preflop which is pretty good. Ironically if Rob decided to play his 8s7s, he would've made a straight flush.
Bought in for $200 more.
Zach: KK AGAIN
Me: QQ AGAIN.
Zach raises to 5, Rob calls, Winston calls, I just call to see if I can trap someone.
Flop: Q 7 5 r
Zach and I get all in on the flop
Pot Size: about $600
Result: He turns a King. I have 91.41% equity and lose again. Man I got varienced in the eye last night.
Expected Return: $548.46
Deviation from expectation of these hands: -$962.23.
Yea... I ran bad.
We had a 20 buyin pot last night. In a $0.50/$1.00 game that means the pot was about $2,000.
Winston is down about $500 right now, and decided to reload for $1k. Rob has over $1,600 and Winston's $1,000 pushed the game size to haveing like $3,500 in play between 4 people. It was beyond ridiculous.
4 handed.
Rob has ATo
Winston has Q2o.
Somehow they manged to get $2000 in the middle.
I'm not quite sure how it went down, but all I know is Winston has trip queens, and Rob had middle pair. Rob bet like $150 on the river and Winston pushed all in for like $700 more and Rob snap called. It was unreal.
eh. We're supposed to play a smaller game on Friday. We'll see how it goes.
See you later.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
No Limit Strategy Post #1: Pot Odds
At it's core, poker is pot odds.
You have 7d 8d. The pot is $100 and your opponent just pushed all in for $10 more on Ac 6h 9s flop. You are heads up. Do you call?Same scenario with one change.
This time he moves all in for $500 more instead of $10 more. Now do you call?
Most people will answer yes to the first and no to the second. Everyone who plays the game understands pot odds at least a little bit. But many beginning players don't know how to properly use pot odd calculations to decide what to do.
The fact is when the game is boiled to it's core the entire goal in Hold'Em is to make someone make a mistake based off odds. If they are 33% to win and are offered better than 2:1 odds, they should theoretically call you. Every time they fold you win money. If they commit their money as a 4:1 underdog with the pot only laying them 2:1 odds, you win money in the long run. Pot odds are critical to poker.
Many players have a rough understanding of pot odds. They understand when the pot is huge, it is more correct to chase because winning the large pot will make up for the times they lose. However, without a solid grounding in math they frequently make mistakes by chasing too often when they shouldn't and folding too often when the odds are good. The most frequent mistakes involve calling with wrong odds with flush and straight draws, and folding strong one pair hands to bets small in comparison to the pot.
I go to a casino and see it all the time. People chasing a flush draw for half their stack on the flop. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don't. They call huge raises preflop with small pocket pairs. They bet strong with a pair only to shrivel up when the 3rd card to a flush comes. It happens online too.
The golden rule of pot odds -
If the odds of you winning is equal or more to the odds the pot is laying, the play is profitable.
For example if you are facing a pot sized river bet with top pair top kicker, you are facing 2:1 odds. If you think you will win 33% of the time you should be calling. If done three times, you will win the entire pot once, which will cover for both the times you lose.
Now the above rule ignores the possibility of raising, playing pots multiway and action on future streets. But it applies every time action closes for the remainder of the hand or action closes on this street and you are drawing to the nuts.
Bluffing and valuebetting is based off pot odds as well, but not only your odds, but also your opponents.
If you make a pot sized bluff, it needs to work 50% of the time to be immediately profitable. If it's a half pot bluff, it needs to work 33% of the time. A fourth pot bet needs to work 25% of the time and so on.
However, remember, the golden rule is if the odds of you winning are greater than the odds you are laying. That means 1/10 pot bets rarely work as profitable bets because you are called far greater than 9/10 times. As a matter of fact bets less than 20% of the pot have an extremely low ratio of success. The problem is a bet like offers your opponent such enticing pot odds that is almost always called. They are receiving odds of 10:1, so they will tend to look you up quite light.
When you are value betting, you are looking for them to call with wrong pot odds. Since they can't know your exact cards, you are trying to get them to commit money with the worst hand. Let's say the flop is Ac4h9h, and you have Ah Kh in your hand. Your make a 1/2 pot bet on the flop. You opponent calls you with 6h 7h, trying to catch a flush. He thinks he has the right odds to call. He is getting 3:1 immediate odds and thinks he can win more out of you if he hits. But in fact, he is drawing nearly dead. So you profit from his call. Because hands are kept secret, he can only put you only a range of hands. Likewise, you can only put him on a range of hands. Therefore, the optimal bet size is the one that offers the pot odds that wins you the most money against his entire range of hands.
Sometimes that means bluffing. Sometimes that means valuebetting. Assuming your bet sizing isn't terrible, you will offer him correct odds for some of his hands and incorrect odds for others. The goal is getting him to fold the hands he has correct odds to play, and getting him to continue with the hands he has wrong odds to play. This is why hand reading is so critical to this game.
Here is a quick formula to determine your odds of winning a hand. It's not perfect, but it's good enough on the fly.
(X)(Y)(2%) = % chance to win.
X is the number of cards that let you win.
Y is the number of remaining streets.
There are approximately 50 cards in the deck. So each card has about a 2% chance to hit. In reality it's higher than that, but that percent is offset by the fact not all your outs are clean,(Meaning you win when you hit them) or the chance they can redraw on you.
So estimating a flush draw, you have 9 outs, over the turn and river. You are about 36% to win, or 2% x 9 x 2. So if you have 2:1 pot odds you should be calling, assuming you are correct about your action chance to win. This can be huge, for example if your opponent pushed for 300 more into a 300 dollar pot, many people would muck their flush draw. But the fact is, assuming your outs are live you should be calling there.
Actually, you'll find when properly implementing pot odds, you will be losing a lot of pots, and sucking out more often. But you're priced in to do so. Just remember the rule. Don't make a call on the river with third pair "because I had 4:1 odds." You may not be winning there one in five times. Try to figure out why they would bet with something, and narrow their hand range.
Good luck all, I'll see you across the felt.
Progress Report #7: UPDATED, School Begins and Big Score
Updated as of Jan 24, 2008
Sorry. I promised I would get a strategy post up, but I haven't had the time to finish it yet. The post will be on pot odds and how it factors into your decision making when bluffing and playing drawing hands. It takes a bit more effort to make a strategy post, since I can't just fill it up with random nonsense.
School started last Monday. I was sick the first day of school, and still have a chronic cough. We played a home game the Sunday before school started, played again on Wednesday and again on this past Sunday. I played online a bit as well and still managed to get my homework done. Winston is going to make this a degenerate semester, lol. But seriously, I actually plan to focus at lot on my classes this time around. I want to bring my GPA up.
Results - Estimated since I'm not at home and don't have my database. Will fix it later.
EDIT: Updated.
Live cash games, net winnings: +$300
Online cash games, net winnings: -$121.28 Apparently, I did better than I thought.
Online Tournaments, net winnings: +$2,467
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$216
Online cash games: -$118.2
Online Tournaments: +$2,467
Tournament ROI: 6592% (Not Sustainable lol)
So I ran bad at our home game, and then ran worse online, but I ran quite good in the tournament, so it all balances out. I entered a $35+3 bounty tournament with a $8,000 guaranteed prize pool. The buyin is split up into $30 for the prize pool, $5 for the bounty pool, and $3 for the house rake. The tournament had about 320-350 players at the beginning. I held up a lot as a 55/45 and 60/40 which is always nice. I also won a critical hand on the final table, that basically put me as a huge favorite to win. The button had about 80k in chips, and I had about 100k. When the blinds are 2000/4000 he raises to about 18k on the button. I think and decide my AQc is way ahead of his raising range on the button, and there is a good amount in already, so I push over his raise. He snap calls my all in with KK. Opps, he had a real hand.
I actually win my 30/70, and eliminate him. After flopping an ace, I now I have a monster stack and proceed to dominate the rest of the final table by playing big stack strategy. I'll be honest, I'm almost never folding AQ suited to a button raise, and even if I had just called I would've flopped an ace and gotten a large number of his chips. After I busted him, we were down to five players, and I took them all out too. Winning was worth about $2,430 and I took out 13 players along the way so I netted another $65.
I plan to withdraw about $1,400 and leave another $1,300 online to grind 50nl with.
There was a fun hand I played heads up. I was playing extremely aggresively heads up, and I think I tilted him pretty hard. The way he played this was quite marginal in my opinion.
I have 78o from the button. Heads up is played with the small blind on the button, and the BB out of position. Since, I had been raising the button a lot (any two cards practically) I decided to just complete this time. Stacks are about 200k each, he has a minor lead. Blinds are 3000/6000 now.
He checks his option and we see a flop.
Flop is 258r.
He bets outs 14k. I call him.
Turn is a 8 and it brings out a flush draw. He bets 35k or so. I call him again, hoping I can get all his chips in the river.
The river is a 4, making a possible straight with 76. He bets out 85k, and I push all in, thinking, well if he really has trips beat heads up, I guess he wins.
He snap called.
And showed 62o.
I fell out of my chair laughing.
I put him all in for his last 20k with 65c and he called with T2d. I flopped a 6 and take him out. He called me a donk afterwards, I found that amusing.
I can't say I played perfectly, after all no one ever does. But I think I played quite well and ran good and that's what it takes to win a tournament.
Post on pot odds coming up next.
Jan 24, 2008.
We had a home hame on Wednesday. I finally got Winston GOOD. It started off normal, I got AQc all in preflop vs Rob's face up 69o and Winston's T8d. Winston wins it, I reload 200 more.
I get AA vs Winston's KK and double.
Then after messing around for a while, I get into another monster pot with Winston. Remember this is a $0.50/$1 game.
Alex raises to $5, Winston calls, I reraise with K9o. Not a normal play by any means, but I have position and decide to make a play at the pot. It folds back around to Winston who calls my $20 raise. The flop is K74r. He checks I bet $30, he calls me. The turn card is a 2 that makes the board completely rainbow. He checks, I check behind. The river is a Ten and he pushes all in. And I think and think and think. I have this sick nagging feeling, that Winston is on a HUGE bluff. He basically put me all in for another $250 when the pot is $100. I go with my gut and make the call, and he shows me 93o. That made my day.
Nate ended the game up about $1100, I left +$460.
I updated my net winnings above taking this into account and also looking up exactly where I am online.
Ja ne.
Sorry. I promised I would get a strategy post up, but I haven't had the time to finish it yet. The post will be on pot odds and how it factors into your decision making when bluffing and playing drawing hands. It takes a bit more effort to make a strategy post, since I can't just fill it up with random nonsense.
School started last Monday. I was sick the first day of school, and still have a chronic cough. We played a home game the Sunday before school started, played again on Wednesday and again on this past Sunday. I played online a bit as well and still managed to get my homework done. Winston is going to make this a degenerate semester, lol. But seriously, I actually plan to focus at lot on my classes this time around. I want to bring my GPA up.
Results - Estimated since I'm not at home and don't have my database. Will fix it later.
EDIT: Updated.
Live cash games, net winnings: +$300
Online cash games, net winnings: -$121.28 Apparently, I did better than I thought.
Online Tournaments, net winnings: +$2,467
Winnings this year to date.
Live Cash Games: +$216
Online cash games: -$118.2
Online Tournaments: +$2,467
Tournament ROI: 6592% (Not Sustainable lol)
So I ran bad at our home game, and then ran worse online, but I ran quite good in the tournament, so it all balances out. I entered a $35+3 bounty tournament with a $8,000 guaranteed prize pool. The buyin is split up into $30 for the prize pool, $5 for the bounty pool, and $3 for the house rake. The tournament had about 320-350 players at the beginning. I held up a lot as a 55/45 and 60/40 which is always nice. I also won a critical hand on the final table, that basically put me as a huge favorite to win. The button had about 80k in chips, and I had about 100k. When the blinds are 2000/4000 he raises to about 18k on the button. I think and decide my AQc is way ahead of his raising range on the button, and there is a good amount in already, so I push over his raise. He snap calls my all in with KK. Opps, he had a real hand.
I actually win my 30/70, and eliminate him. After flopping an ace, I now I have a monster stack and proceed to dominate the rest of the final table by playing big stack strategy. I'll be honest, I'm almost never folding AQ suited to a button raise, and even if I had just called I would've flopped an ace and gotten a large number of his chips. After I busted him, we were down to five players, and I took them all out too. Winning was worth about $2,430 and I took out 13 players along the way so I netted another $65.
I plan to withdraw about $1,400 and leave another $1,300 online to grind 50nl with.
There was a fun hand I played heads up. I was playing extremely aggresively heads up, and I think I tilted him pretty hard. The way he played this was quite marginal in my opinion.
I have 78o from the button. Heads up is played with the small blind on the button, and the BB out of position. Since, I had been raising the button a lot (any two cards practically) I decided to just complete this time. Stacks are about 200k each, he has a minor lead. Blinds are 3000/6000 now.
He checks his option and we see a flop.
Flop is 258r.
He bets outs 14k. I call him.
Turn is a 8 and it brings out a flush draw. He bets 35k or so. I call him again, hoping I can get all his chips in the river.
The river is a 4, making a possible straight with 76. He bets out 85k, and I push all in, thinking, well if he really has trips beat heads up, I guess he wins.
He snap called.
And showed 62o.
I fell out of my chair laughing.
I put him all in for his last 20k with 65c and he called with T2d. I flopped a 6 and take him out. He called me a donk afterwards, I found that amusing.
I can't say I played perfectly, after all no one ever does. But I think I played quite well and ran good and that's what it takes to win a tournament.
Post on pot odds coming up next.
Jan 24, 2008.
We had a home hame on Wednesday. I finally got Winston GOOD. It started off normal, I got AQc all in preflop vs Rob's face up 69o and Winston's T8d. Winston wins it, I reload 200 more.
I get AA vs Winston's KK and double.
Then after messing around for a while, I get into another monster pot with Winston. Remember this is a $0.50/$1 game.
Alex raises to $5, Winston calls, I reraise with K9o. Not a normal play by any means, but I have position and decide to make a play at the pot. It folds back around to Winston who calls my $20 raise. The flop is K74r. He checks I bet $30, he calls me. The turn card is a 2 that makes the board completely rainbow. He checks, I check behind. The river is a Ten and he pushes all in. And I think and think and think. I have this sick nagging feeling, that Winston is on a HUGE bluff. He basically put me all in for another $250 when the pot is $100. I go with my gut and make the call, and he shows me 93o. That made my day.
Nate ended the game up about $1100, I left +$460.
I updated my net winnings above taking this into account and also looking up exactly where I am online.
Ja ne.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Progress Report #6: Morongo Casino = Casino where Morons go?
I went to Morongo with a few friends. Frank, and two of Frank's buddies, Justin and Andy. Of course since Frank is driving, we are supposed to leave at noon. This means we didn't get onto the freeway until 1:30. We swung by Cal Poly Pomona to pick up Andy and we're off. We don't get to the Morongo until 4:15. I have no idea how that happened, other then the fact Frank is a rather conservative driver.
Hands played: Not sure. Estimating about 200-300. Live games are rather slow paced compared to online.
Net Winnings: -$84, with another $30 spent on food and gas expensive and one hand of $5 blackjack.
Quality of play: Excellent, I was at the top of my game.
Net Winnings from the beginning of the 2008
Hands Played Online: 1425
Online: $3.08 lololol
Approximate Hands played live: 300
Live: -$84
Total: -$80.96
So while Frank and the rest of those clowns wandered around the casino looking to play blackjack, I put my name on the board. At Morongo they spread two No Limit Hold'Em games. A 1/3 blind 40 min 100 max buyin game and a 2/5 blind 100 min no max buyin game. I put my name on both.
The 1/3 game had an open seat, so I sat down and bought in for the maximum. Since the casino only offers full ring games, and rakes the blinds even if there is no flop, correct strategy dictates you play tight, and steal pots when they show weakness. I didn't really pick up anything for the first 10-15 minutes and my stack dwindled to around 80.
Then I picked up QQ in the small blind. There were 3 limpers, one from MP, one from CO and one from the BTN. I raised it to 18, a raise I felt that they would be likely to call and extracts maximum value out of my big pair. The flop comes out Qc4c4h. Well top boat is a good flop for my hand. Being out of position rears its ugly head as I try to figure the best way to extract money. I decide to check and give one of the other two players a chance to bet at it, or spike a pair. They both check behind. The turn is a Ks which is a card that one of them might hit if they have a hand like KJ KT or even K7s or something. I bet out for 25 and get one call. The river is the 5s which is practically a blank. I think and then push all in for another 40 or so. He folds and shows 99. I don't think he would've bet if I checked to him anyways, and may have only called a really small bet, so I don't think I missed out on much there.
Not long after that hand, I get called to the 2/5 table. I sit down with $158. I sign up for a $5 rebuy and buy the $3 add on. I come back to the 2/5 and decline to take the big blind as I would rather get a free round of blinds. For people who play at casinos, you should ALWAYS take your free hands if offered. If you have to wait for the big blind to pass, you should do it. Instead of paying money to play, take the time to watch the how the other players play.
Now there is a very strong, low skill strategy that can be used at loose games. It's called short stacking. I'll go into it in more depth later (another post), but short stacking is basically using your short buyin to prevent them from getting proper odds to draw out on you. (I'll go into this later as well) Ed Miller first published the basic concept in a book called Getting Started in Hold'Em. It's a quality piece for people who have no idea how to play well.
Anyways, shortstacking calls for very tight play and relying on your good hands to get paid off because of the lack of skill people have playing against shortstacks. I slowly build my stack to around 200 with a few picked up pots here and there. Then things start to go wrong. A lady raises to 20 from lateish middle position. A donkey calls from the button. I look down at KJs on the bb and decide to take a flop for $15 more. The flop comes out KcJc6h, which is obviously a great flop for me. I decide to check it and see if I can trap more money in the middle before moving in. The lady obliges me by betting $20 more, and the button calls. The pot is $100 now, and if I raise to $100, I'll only have $80 left. I'm practically pot committed anyways if I make any raise, and I don't think either of them will fold a hand like KQ or AK to me anyways, so I just move in. The lady instantly mucks her hand signifying she didn't have anything anyways. The button thinks and thinks. He looks at me, and I'm just tipping the server for bringing me a bottle of water. I notice him looking and look down and stop moving. He finally says call. The turn is a 2s and the river is a Td. Now while, I would normally have a great chance of winning on this board, I had a really bad feeling about that ten. I tell him, "I have top two pair. I beat everything except a set and a straight." He slowly flips over TT and starts grabbing the chips. I'm a bit frustrated since TT is a pretty bad call there and I am 84% favorite to win, but really I can't ask for more then him committing his money bad.
I reload for another 100. I work that up to about 125, then I raise to 25 UTG with AKo. I get 3 callers then the BB, who is an aggressive older Asian guy, reraises to 140. I think for a bit and call. The others fold. He shows me 88, which is more or less what I expected. An 8 hits the flop and just like that I'm drawing dead.
So I'm down 200 right now. I wander around the casino a bit and read Card Player (poker magazine provided in the poker lounge). The tournament starts and work my stack up a bit with some aggressive all ins. The tournament structure at Morongo is an extremely fast structure. Since it's a rebuy, we only started with 800 chips and the blinds started at 25/50. The blinds then doubled every 15 minutes, making the whole tournament into a big luckfest. I ran QQ into KK after rebuying for 10 once then decided to quit.
Luckily the tournament offers a $20 coupon to anyone who bought the addon, so that made it a bit better. Yay $2 profit. You had to play for another hour of so to cash it in, so I sat down at the 1/3 again, mostly just wanting to cash in the coupon. I read Card Player from cover to cover in about an hour and half before sitting down to play again. I thought it was better I took a break to avoid any chance of tilt.
Apparently the table I sat down on was a jackpot, because the players were among the worst I've ever seen. The guy right on my left just lost two big pots and was on massive tilt. He pushed AI for $27 and I looked down at 55. I decided I'm perfectly willing to coinflip here and I raised to $60 go HU. I figured given our moderately late position the odds of someone showing up with a bigger pair wasn't very high. Right after raising, the guy on my left begins mumbling "Wow. How can I fold this hand? Wow. Ok I'm all in. $63 total." It folds back around to me and I obviously call another $3. The guy on my right shows me KJo, the guy on my left shows AKo. Then the players start talking.
Their comments
"Wow 55? Really?"
"I folded 77 to that action, I mean how can I call?", "
"I know I folded AJ."
"Hmm, sounds bad I folded a King. 55 is gonna win."
Sure enough the board bricks, and I take it down with unimproved 55.
Things are crazy from there on out.
I flop a straight on 8s6s4s flop and get it AI vs 33 no spade and win.
I flop a set of nines on a 6c9cJc flop get it AI vs J9 and AA no club, and lose to a rivered Jack.
I get JJ AI vs AKo preflop and lose.
I get 55 AI preflop again. This time vs A8 and AQ and they spike an Ace this time.
I flop two pair with 34d and get marginal action.
I end up 106 and with the $20 coupon (which is really only worth $10 since I rebought for $10 once), I recover 116 and and the day at a better -$84. I would actually have played longer but it was almost midnight now, and I promised them I would quit by midnight. I call Frank and he doesn't answer his phone. Figures. I look about the poker room and happen to watch something cool happen.
A guy just sat down at the table. He picks up TT, raises and another guy calls.
The flop is AA4, both players check. The turn is an Ace and the guy with TT bets small and gets called. He checks the 3c on the river and the other guy bets. He calls. He has AAATT beaten by AAAAJ. Suddenly, they realize they just hit the jackpot. Sadly they missed the double jackpot promotion by 7 minutes, but chopping up $15k for the table on a $100 max buyin isn't too bad.
I wander about the casino and finally find Frank, Justin and Andy eating. We leave and I don't get home till 3AM.
Frank lost about 80 or so.
Justin won 100 or something.
Andy lost an unknown amount.
I'll off for now. I promise to make a strategy post next, I have 3 started and none finished.
Hands played: Not sure. Estimating about 200-300. Live games are rather slow paced compared to online.
Net Winnings: -$84, with another $30 spent on food and gas expensive and one hand of $5 blackjack.
Quality of play: Excellent, I was at the top of my game.
Net Winnings from the beginning of the 2008
Hands Played Online: 1425
Online: $3.08 lololol
Approximate Hands played live: 300
Live: -$84
Total: -$80.96
So while Frank and the rest of those clowns wandered around the casino looking to play blackjack, I put my name on the board. At Morongo they spread two No Limit Hold'Em games. A 1/3 blind 40 min 100 max buyin game and a 2/5 blind 100 min no max buyin game. I put my name on both.
The 1/3 game had an open seat, so I sat down and bought in for the maximum. Since the casino only offers full ring games, and rakes the blinds even if there is no flop, correct strategy dictates you play tight, and steal pots when they show weakness. I didn't really pick up anything for the first 10-15 minutes and my stack dwindled to around 80.
Then I picked up QQ in the small blind. There were 3 limpers, one from MP, one from CO and one from the BTN. I raised it to 18, a raise I felt that they would be likely to call and extracts maximum value out of my big pair. The flop comes out Qc4c4h. Well top boat is a good flop for my hand. Being out of position rears its ugly head as I try to figure the best way to extract money. I decide to check and give one of the other two players a chance to bet at it, or spike a pair. They both check behind. The turn is a Ks which is a card that one of them might hit if they have a hand like KJ KT or even K7s or something. I bet out for 25 and get one call. The river is the 5s which is practically a blank. I think and then push all in for another 40 or so. He folds and shows 99. I don't think he would've bet if I checked to him anyways, and may have only called a really small bet, so I don't think I missed out on much there.
Not long after that hand, I get called to the 2/5 table. I sit down with $158. I sign up for a $5 rebuy and buy the $3 add on. I come back to the 2/5 and decline to take the big blind as I would rather get a free round of blinds. For people who play at casinos, you should ALWAYS take your free hands if offered. If you have to wait for the big blind to pass, you should do it. Instead of paying money to play, take the time to watch the how the other players play.
Now there is a very strong, low skill strategy that can be used at loose games. It's called short stacking. I'll go into it in more depth later (another post), but short stacking is basically using your short buyin to prevent them from getting proper odds to draw out on you. (I'll go into this later as well) Ed Miller first published the basic concept in a book called Getting Started in Hold'Em. It's a quality piece for people who have no idea how to play well.
Anyways, shortstacking calls for very tight play and relying on your good hands to get paid off because of the lack of skill people have playing against shortstacks. I slowly build my stack to around 200 with a few picked up pots here and there. Then things start to go wrong. A lady raises to 20 from lateish middle position. A donkey calls from the button. I look down at KJs on the bb and decide to take a flop for $15 more. The flop comes out KcJc6h, which is obviously a great flop for me. I decide to check it and see if I can trap more money in the middle before moving in. The lady obliges me by betting $20 more, and the button calls. The pot is $100 now, and if I raise to $100, I'll only have $80 left. I'm practically pot committed anyways if I make any raise, and I don't think either of them will fold a hand like KQ or AK to me anyways, so I just move in. The lady instantly mucks her hand signifying she didn't have anything anyways. The button thinks and thinks. He looks at me, and I'm just tipping the server for bringing me a bottle of water. I notice him looking and look down and stop moving. He finally says call. The turn is a 2s and the river is a Td. Now while, I would normally have a great chance of winning on this board, I had a really bad feeling about that ten. I tell him, "I have top two pair. I beat everything except a set and a straight." He slowly flips over TT and starts grabbing the chips. I'm a bit frustrated since TT is a pretty bad call there and I am 84% favorite to win, but really I can't ask for more then him committing his money bad.
I reload for another 100. I work that up to about 125, then I raise to 25 UTG with AKo. I get 3 callers then the BB, who is an aggressive older Asian guy, reraises to 140. I think for a bit and call. The others fold. He shows me 88, which is more or less what I expected. An 8 hits the flop and just like that I'm drawing dead.
So I'm down 200 right now. I wander around the casino a bit and read Card Player (poker magazine provided in the poker lounge). The tournament starts and work my stack up a bit with some aggressive all ins. The tournament structure at Morongo is an extremely fast structure. Since it's a rebuy, we only started with 800 chips and the blinds started at 25/50. The blinds then doubled every 15 minutes, making the whole tournament into a big luckfest. I ran QQ into KK after rebuying for 10 once then decided to quit.
Luckily the tournament offers a $20 coupon to anyone who bought the addon, so that made it a bit better. Yay $2 profit. You had to play for another hour of so to cash it in, so I sat down at the 1/3 again, mostly just wanting to cash in the coupon. I read Card Player from cover to cover in about an hour and half before sitting down to play again. I thought it was better I took a break to avoid any chance of tilt.
Apparently the table I sat down on was a jackpot, because the players were among the worst I've ever seen. The guy right on my left just lost two big pots and was on massive tilt. He pushed AI for $27 and I looked down at 55. I decided I'm perfectly willing to coinflip here and I raised to $60 go HU. I figured given our moderately late position the odds of someone showing up with a bigger pair wasn't very high. Right after raising, the guy on my left begins mumbling "Wow. How can I fold this hand? Wow. Ok I'm all in. $63 total." It folds back around to me and I obviously call another $3. The guy on my right shows me KJo, the guy on my left shows AKo. Then the players start talking.
Their comments
"Wow 55? Really?"
"I folded 77 to that action, I mean how can I call?", "
"I know I folded AJ."
"Hmm, sounds bad I folded a King. 55 is gonna win."
Sure enough the board bricks, and I take it down with unimproved 55.
Things are crazy from there on out.
I flop a straight on 8s6s4s flop and get it AI vs 33 no spade and win.
I flop a set of nines on a 6c9cJc flop get it AI vs J9 and AA no club, and lose to a rivered Jack.
I get JJ AI vs AKo preflop and lose.
I get 55 AI preflop again. This time vs A8 and AQ and they spike an Ace this time.
I flop two pair with 34d and get marginal action.
I end up 106 and with the $20 coupon (which is really only worth $10 since I rebought for $10 once), I recover 116 and and the day at a better -$84. I would actually have played longer but it was almost midnight now, and I promised them I would quit by midnight. I call Frank and he doesn't answer his phone. Figures. I look about the poker room and happen to watch something cool happen.
A guy just sat down at the table. He picks up TT, raises and another guy calls.
The flop is AA4, both players check. The turn is an Ace and the guy with TT bets small and gets called. He checks the 3c on the river and the other guy bets. He calls. He has AAATT beaten by AAAAJ. Suddenly, they realize they just hit the jackpot. Sadly they missed the double jackpot promotion by 7 minutes, but chopping up $15k for the table on a $100 max buyin isn't too bad.
I wander about the casino and finally find Frank, Justin and Andy eating. We leave and I don't get home till 3AM.
Frank lost about 80 or so.
Justin won 100 or something.
Andy lost an unknown amount.
I'll off for now. I promise to make a strategy post next, I have 3 started and none finished.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Progress Post #5: Home Games are fun! Adjust!
I played a home game last night with some friends of mine. I had a blast playing low stakes and generally just enjoyed myself. I had some very interesting hands that I'll discuss later.
First, I'll report my online winnings for the last week or so.
Game played: $10nl, a little $25nl
Hands played: 1937, in 5 sessions
Net Winnings: $56.94
Quality of play: Good. I deliberately didn't play when I didn't feel like I could play well.
I'll write some about game selection later. I came home on the January 1st at 2AM. I actually didn't drink at all, so I decided to play some poker real fast and take advantage of the drunk people. I won about $25 in about 20 minutes, so I just quit before I got too tired to play well.
In the home game last night, I decided to experiment with a style that Winston uses. He tends to play extremely loose, and uses his hand reading skills to get money in good postflop. This works when the people you are playing against either don't know how to adjust or adjust poorly when facing good loose play (which is hard to do, and I would suggest playing tight for beginners.)
Anyways, we played a tournament at first. A small buyin $10. There were only five players with winner getting $40 and second getting $10. I managed to go heads up with a 2:1 chip lead on my opponent. I managed to increase that lead to almost 3:1 when he caught AA vs my AK. We got AI preflop and I doubled him up. Two hands later, he raises preflop, I call with K9s. The flop comes out 9c6s2h and I check raise all in. He snapcalls with AA! It's very rare to catch pocket aces twice in the space of three hands, and even more rare to get them against such other strong hands. He played well though and I played well, so I have no regrets. Afterwards, we played a cash game.
A sixth player showed up. Each of us bought in for $10 and the blinds were $0.10/$0.20. The game was extremely loose, and most of the people were playing pretty poorly. Using Winston's style, I messed around in a lot of small and medium sized pots. I tried to pick up a lot of small pots to win some money while I waited for a big hand. Eventually I turned two pair and got all in vs an overpair + and OESD. I held up and doubled. After this, I dominated the table, because of their irrational of a chip leader. I built my stack playing nearly 50% of my hands and winning most of them. I extracted value out of weaker pairs and snapped bluffs. I even called a guy when I just had Queen high! And won. I ended the night by busting a player when I pushed over his reraise with AQ. He got frustrated and called with K4d. I held up and won like $25 at the end of the night.
Adjusting to your opponents is absolutely critical to poker. Throughout the course of the night I figured out how they were thinking and constantly adjusted to them. I figured out Yoshi would get frustrated and would reraise with less than a premium hand. I also called with Queen high when they figured they likely would bluff at me with any two cards. I even told him I had Queen high, and figured he would bluff at me.
I'll write more about adjusting in a real strategy post later.
Good luck at the tables guys! I'll see you later.
First, I'll report my online winnings for the last week or so.
Game played: $10nl, a little $25nl
Hands played: 1937, in 5 sessions
Net Winnings: $56.94
Quality of play: Good. I deliberately didn't play when I didn't feel like I could play well.
I'll write some about game selection later. I came home on the January 1st at 2AM. I actually didn't drink at all, so I decided to play some poker real fast and take advantage of the drunk people. I won about $25 in about 20 minutes, so I just quit before I got too tired to play well.
In the home game last night, I decided to experiment with a style that Winston uses. He tends to play extremely loose, and uses his hand reading skills to get money in good postflop. This works when the people you are playing against either don't know how to adjust or adjust poorly when facing good loose play (which is hard to do, and I would suggest playing tight for beginners.)
Anyways, we played a tournament at first. A small buyin $10. There were only five players with winner getting $40 and second getting $10. I managed to go heads up with a 2:1 chip lead on my opponent. I managed to increase that lead to almost 3:1 when he caught AA vs my AK. We got AI preflop and I doubled him up. Two hands later, he raises preflop, I call with K9s. The flop comes out 9c6s2h and I check raise all in. He snapcalls with AA! It's very rare to catch pocket aces twice in the space of three hands, and even more rare to get them against such other strong hands. He played well though and I played well, so I have no regrets. Afterwards, we played a cash game.
A sixth player showed up. Each of us bought in for $10 and the blinds were $0.10/$0.20. The game was extremely loose, and most of the people were playing pretty poorly. Using Winston's style, I messed around in a lot of small and medium sized pots. I tried to pick up a lot of small pots to win some money while I waited for a big hand. Eventually I turned two pair and got all in vs an overpair + and OESD. I held up and doubled. After this, I dominated the table, because of their irrational of a chip leader. I built my stack playing nearly 50% of my hands and winning most of them. I extracted value out of weaker pairs and snapped bluffs. I even called a guy when I just had Queen high! And won. I ended the night by busting a player when I pushed over his reraise with AQ. He got frustrated and called with K4d. I held up and won like $25 at the end of the night.
Adjusting to your opponents is absolutely critical to poker. Throughout the course of the night I figured out how they were thinking and constantly adjusted to them. I figured out Yoshi would get frustrated and would reraise with less than a premium hand. I also called with Queen high when they figured they likely would bluff at me with any two cards. I even told him I had Queen high, and figured he would bluff at me.
I'll write more about adjusting in a real strategy post later.
Good luck at the tables guys! I'll see you later.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Getting Started Right #1: Rakeback.
Rakeback is free money for playing poker.
For any online poker player, rakeback is beneficial for them. It costs nothing, takes almost no time to set up, and offers to get them free money. I wrote another article explaining the details of rakeback, but all you really need to know is that rakeback is a promotion from poker sites and their affiliates.
Every hand around 5% is raked from the pot. That rake is divided between the players to calculate how much each person contributed. Their monthly total is called their MGR, or monthly gross rake. A poker site usually offers to return about 20-35% of your MGR each month.
It's beneficial for tournament players as well, as the tournament fee for tournaments is added to your MGR. Frankly, every person online should have rakeback, there is simply no reason not to.
You can have an account with rakeback by signing up at one of the various sites that provide the rakeback promotion. I use Rakebreak, and provided their link below. I'm an affiliate, and my referral code is 458. If you do sign up for rakeback, I'd appreciate it if you helped me out.
Rakebreak offers the best rakeback deals you will find online. While most sites offer the same percentage of rakeback Rakebreak also allows you to easily check your MGR on each site, cash out your accumulate rakeback at any time, and the signup process for each site is thoroughly explained on the site.
Oh and they have $10,000 freerolls and stuff for their members.
In the case of Rakebreak, simple click on the link, and create an account with Rakebreak. Then you simply click on the site you want rakeback for and follow their instructions. I have rakeback with them on all the sites I play on, and no one I have talked to have had any issues with them.
There are usually industry standards for how much rakeback you can receive.
This is a quick breakdown of a few major sites offered to US players.
Pokerstars - No rakeback offered.
Full Tilt - 27%
Absolute Bet - 30%
Ultimate Bet - 30%
Cake Poker - 33%
For people with existing accounts, it is possible to get them tagged with rakeback. I suggest signing up with rakebreak and then sending an email to both the site you play on and Rakebreak support to see if you can get it tagged with rakeback. If not you may have to make a new account.
Rakeback is a critical tool to winning online, but it will net you additional money whenever you play. Considering the minimal time investment, it is well worth the 15 or so minutes it requires to do. It can turn losing players into break even players, break even players into winners, and winners into even bigger winners. Rakeback is the very first step I recommend to people who want to get started online.
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