Astafas's Poker Life

Variance or bad plays (or both)?

2009-10-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

Things aren't going very well as I am down about 5 buyins at 5NL so far this month.
I am definately running bad: my EV stat tells me I should be up $5 instead of down $25. You know, just the usual bad beats. Also, I played some big combodraws, where I am 50%-40% to win the pot, very aggressive but then missed. Again, I didn't tilt as bad as I used to, but still made some mistakes I shouldn't have, making calls when that little voice in the back of my head told me not to.

In an effort to turn things around, I started playing a bit tighter post-flop even though I'm not all too happy with that, because now I sometimes feel I'm just weak-tight. I also disabled my own stats on the HUD as I noticed I sometimes make decisions based on my own stats, like "I should 3bet here because I haven't 3bet enough".

Even though I show a profit almost every month, I really need some kind of winning streak to build confidence. It's nice to see that bankroll grow slowly but steadily, but 3/4 of all my profits have come from bonusses and rakeback and that just doesn't make me feel like a winning poker player.

I guess I'll just have to keep trying...

What's the rake like?

2009-10-08T04:56:00.000-07:00

Rake is kind of a weird thing (for me): if you loose the pot, you don't have to pay rake and if you win the pot, it's just a tiny peace of it so it doesn't really matter, right?

I had been reading on differences in rake structures across the sites and that you shouldn't play on Full Tilt at 10NL or below or in live games any game below 5-10 is pretty hard to beat because of the rake etc.

So I took a look at my rake and noticed a few interesting points. Anyway, for some of the levels I probably don't have a sufficient sample size, but here are a few numbers and conclusions (all 6max):

2NL: 12.8 bb/100
5NL: 13.2 bb/100
10NL: 15.5 bb/100

Everest Poker: 16.3 bb/100
Party Poker: 12.0 bb/100
Pokerstars: 9.1 bb/100
Full Tilt: 15.3 bb/100
Titan Poker: 15.9 bb/100

Overall: 14.9 bb/100

Obviously, the effective rake is affected by the play: loose tables = more and bigger pots = more rake. I guess that's why Everest has the highest number.
Full Tilt rake > Pokerstars rake: I don't think there's a big difference in looseness here, and you can see the result of a better rake structure at stars (for these levels). Also, and again pretty logical, rake at full ring is less than 6max.

I was surprised to see these numbers to say the least. Being only slightly better than your opponents clearly isn't going to be profitable. I guess this also means that every 100 hands almost and entire stack is taken off the table because of the rake. Hence the huge profits of Stars and company.

Sure, the rake in bb/100 drops down at higher stakes because of the cap, but achievable winrates probably drop down even faster.

Laterz.

September results

2009-10-05T00:44:00.000-07:00

September results

Cash games
2NL: 2.2k hands and + $15.28 for 34.4bb/100
10NL: 6k hands and + $17.05 for 2.8bb/100

Bonusses and rakeback
Everest Poker: $50 bonus
Full Tilt Poker: $10 bonus
Full Tilt Poker: $4.56 rakeback

Total + $96

I also cleared the maximum bonus of Take2 at Full Tilt for another $50, which is a nice start for October.

So, result wise, September was a great month. Nevertheless, I'm not that thrilled about my play. I still kept stacking off in spots I should have known I was behind. It seems my mind gets clouded whenever the pot gets big. I didn't have any major tilt sessions though and I feel I have improved in that area at least a bit.

October goals

I'll be playing a mixture of 2NL, 5NL and some 10NL, mostly on Full Tilt to clear some more of my first deposit bonus. I have drawn a little schedule where my number of tables at a given level depends on my winrate at that level. This means I will limit the number of tables to 2 until I achieve my expected winrate. Once, I reach that winrate, I can increase the number of tables to a maximum of 4. Hopefully I'll have the discipline to stick to it and see some better results.

2NL: 1k hands 4-tabling
5NL: 4k hands starting with 2 tables
10NL: 1k hands 2-tabling

So, less volume for (I hope) a better winrate.

Bye!

Back to back

2009-09-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

I was playing some 2NL on Pokerstars yesterday (I was pretty tired, so I didn't feel like playing 10NL) and after about an hour I was stuck a little as I wasn't getting any good starting hands and was missing a lot of flops.

I was already thinking stars had decided to just give me no cards at all and I figured I was probably going to get cold-decked on my first big hand :)

Then a funny thing happened: I got QQ on one table, AA on another and TT on a third table at the same time.
TT: I raise a bunch of limpers from the BB and take down the pot preflop.

QQ: I openraise from the BTN and take down the blinds.

AA: I raise from MP to 4x and get two callers. Flop comes 347 with two clubs.
Now the BB bets out $0.10 into a $0.25 pot. I really don't like this flop and the donkbet. Sure he'll probably be on a draw, but at these limits, it's going to take a big raise to make him fold his draw, plus I have another player behind me. I decide to play it cautious and just call. The third player now raises to $0.20 and the BB calls. I really don't know what to make of that minreraise, but the pot is getting big already and I decide to fold (very weak play, I know, but I had a bad feeling about this hand.) Anyway, the turn is another 7 and now the guy in LP bets big and takes it down. I guess he had at least top pair on the flop, possibly even a set.

The very next hand on the QQ table I get QQ again, back to back (and take down another small pot).
And... the very next hand on the AA table I get AA again, back to back (just thought that was pretty funny). I raise again, this time to 5x and get one caller. The flop comes Kxx, I bet halfpot, villain reraises and I shove and felt the villain who had, get this, K6o. So, aces and queens back to back at the same time :)

I had another hand from a previous session I'm not sure about how I should have handled it:

10NL, I just sat down at the table (in fact it was my first hand at that table)

Villain with a stack of about 65BB UTG raises to 5x (which is definately more than usual).
I have AKo in the BB and call (a mistake, I probably should have reraised there).
Flop comes Kxx rainbow and I check.
Villain makes a potsized bet that I flatcall. The pot now is $3.
The turn is a low and second club, I check again and now the villain shoves.
I'm almost getting 2 to 1 here and don't know what to do: if he's a good player, he most likely has AA, KK, AK, maybe KQ and once in a blue moon Ax with with a FD. If he's a bad player, he could be doing this with QQ, JJ, TT, figuring my calls are weak. In the back of my mind, I knew I was in trouble, but given my pot odds I couldn't lay down TPTK. He shows AA and takes it down.
Is this an auto-fold or would you call as well?

Never go broke in an unraised pot...

2009-09-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

I know!! Still managed to do just that twice this month and even with the same holecards AND even with the same flop.

Hand 1: I'm in the BB with K2o in a limped pot.
Flop comes K92 rainbow, I bet, get raised and soon enough all the money is in the middle. I'm up against K9 and loose.

Hand 2: I'm in the BB with K2o in a limped pot.
Flop comes K82 rainbow, I bet, get raised and ... you get the picture.

Donkey anyone?

At this point, I've got a nice little streak of 5 consecutive loosing sessions going and I'm down 10 buyins overall at 10NL and beginning to accept my future poker career will be spent grinding it out at the 5NL tables. Fortunately, the next sessions have been a lot better and after a monster win of $50 in my last session, I have recovered 9 buyins. Especially that last session, I played my best poker (and was running pretty hot too), so my confidence got a much needed boost.

Anyway, I already cleared my $50 bonus at Everest and I'm still on pace to pick the $50 Take2 bonus on Full Tilt. The rest of the month, I'll be playing a mixture of 2NL, 5NL and 10NL and really focus on my game instead of volume.

I'm also practicing hand reading by recording all hands with a showdown using holdemmanager. I'd be pausing the video to analyze betting, position, stats and trying to narrow down hand ranges.

My game needs some serious work and I'm quite sure I have leaks all over the place.
Exhibit 1: position is very important and good players show a bigger profit in later positions. Right?
Well, not me. Here's my ranking of positions based on profit: UTG, MP, LP, CO, BTN, SB, BB. That's right: my most profitable position is UTG. I have no idea what a decent BB/100 in the BB is, but I'm guessing a whopping -50bb/100 isn't very good.

Exhibit 2: big pots are for big hands. I know this, but still have stacked off 10+ times with just a pair.

I do feel I'm getting better in the stealing and valuebetting stuff though.

Finally, some good news: against all hope, Simbapoker has refunded my $100!
With a little luck, I might see a $250 bankrollboost this month.

Bonus chasing

2009-09-04T02:17:00.000-07:00

This month is bonus chasing month as I got a nice bonus offer from Everest and Full Tilt is running another Take2 promotion.

On Everest I get $50 if I reach 600 points by the 16th. Currently, I'm at 230, so I figure another 4k hands at 10NL should do the trick. Because I'm at Base Camp, I'll get another 1200 points extra (200% bonus) and at 1$ per 250 points, that's a few more bucks.

Full Tilt is running a Take2 promotion which actually is a double bonus.
First, you get double points if you multitable. Nice, but not that great...
Secondly, and this is a great bonus, you get cash for playing regularly during this month: $5 if you play 5 days, another $10 for 10 days, another $10 for 15 days and another $25 for 25 days. So that's a potential $50, plus you only have to earn 1 FTP for that day to count. Bottom line for me: play about 10 minutes a day at Full Tilt and pick up $50.

Combined that's over $100 in bonusses to be earned and I'll definately make an effort to pick that up. I just need to make sure I don't drop too much on the tables when chasing these bonusses (as I have done in the past).

At the tables, I'm still struggling, making too many mistakes for sure, but it is sooo hard to put the many fish, playing >50% of the hands, on a hand. Often they really could have anything, from AA to J6...

Rock bottom for Mr. POW

2009-08-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

That's right: I'm a Pay Off Wizard.
I raise AKo, get called, get raised on a dry board, call the turn, call the river and donate a buyin.

I'm now down 8 buyins at 10NL in under 15k hands.
VPIP, PFR, PFA, WWSF, WTSD, W$SD: all decent to good. In fact my stats could serve as guideline for any 10NL player, but still I'm stuck and I'm stuck well.
Why? Stacking off to others often and have others stack off to me rarely.

My graph is like: up, up, up, up, up, bang all the way down, up, up, up, bang all the way down (repeat at will).

I'm going camping for a week with family and friends next week, which probably is a good thing for my bankroll...

After that I'm gonna hang a sticky on my monitor:

DO NOT MULTITABLE !!!
BIG POTS ARE FOR BIG HANDS!!!
DO NOT BLUFF !!!
(with anything less than a big draw, and even then).

Goddamn POW.

Frustrating session

2009-08-12T06:37:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's session kinda pissed me off. Early on, I got rivered a couple of times, and a few hands later, I folded the best hand against two opponents. Now, I wasn't tilting in a way where I would start raising every hand or pot but I started calling light. Too light, which costed me some BB's, and at that time I was down 150BB's.

Anyway, I decided to take a deep breath and try to play my best game and then this hand occurs:
On the button, I raise a limper in the cutoff (he was playing 85/0!) to 4x with A9o.
The SB and limper both call, so there is $1.30 in the pot.

The flop comes AQJ with two clubs and the limper it gets checked to me.
I figure my hand is good often enough to cbet this flop, so I bet $1.
Now the SB reraises to $2 and then the limper shoves his remaining $2.70.

At this point I'm thinking there is no way I'm good here. I could be up against a flopped straight, two pair, even a set (since the limper never raises and I had seen him limp with AA). Now the SB could be on a FD, but surely the limper must have a big hand 3betting this flop. So, I fold...

The SB calls and I get to see their cards: the SB has A2o and the limper has A6o...
And I am pissed again...

A couple of hands later, I flop top pair with a 9 kicker.
I'm up against a fish, so I decide to valuebet: 2/3pot on the flop, 1/2 pot on the blank turn and on the river I decide to check it down. My opponent had been calling my bets with third pair and obviously hits two pair on the river...

I made some awful mistakes too though. Well, I grind it back up to break-even, but I end the session almost $4 down. It's hard for me to believe maybe I'm just no better player than my competition at these micro-tables. I'm playing somthing like 22/17/2.5 with about 4% 3betting. And most of the time I'm the only one with stats like these. Most players are like 50/4/2 or 60/10/1 or even 80/0/1.5 (fish), some are 10/9/3 or 12/6/1 or even 4/4/2 (rocks) and occasionally there is a 30/20/4 or a 60/30/3 or 30/25/7 (aggro's). So, I'm thinking my pre-flop play is better right? Obviously, my post-flop game is the problem, and even more: the few tilt session that usually trash my winrate. I'm back in the no-confidence zone either way.

Some good news though, I finally gor a resonse from Simbapoker about my refund. It seems there were some delays, but they are still in the process of refunding their players, so it's just a matter of time. So, maybe that $100 eventually will find it's way back to me.

Back from vacation

2009-08-04T04:49:00.000-07:00

After three weeks in France with the family it's back to work and back to the tables for me. We went to the Montagne Noir, near the city of Carcassonne (which has an awesome castle site) and then to the Provence on a nice camping site where we had a spot 5 metres from a little river, the Sorgue. Great weather, a nice swimming pool, lots of stuff to visit and the kids having great fun... Also, I didn't smoke a single sigarette the entire three weeks!

Even though I haven't given poker and work much thought, I couldn't resist checking out who were the November nine. Can you believe Phil Ivey, with 2 bracelets and a final nine spot in the main event is not the undisputed wsop player of the year? Surely, their scoring system could use a few adjustments.

Pokerwise July was a disaster as I have dropped 10 buyins at the 10NL tables just before I left for France. On top of that, Simbapoker decided to call it quits, and even though they guaranteed every player would get their money refunded, I'm still waiting for my $100. I tried emailing then the minute I got back from vacation but I haven't got any response so I fear that $100 is lost. Big time bummer if your roll is just $500.

May results

2009-06-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

May results

May has been a decent month, even though I feel I haven't played too well.

4NL: 1400 hands and +$45 for 78bb/100 (aka running hot)
10NL: 4200 hands and +$23 for 5.5bb/100 (aka not bad, not good either)

Cash games: +68 (a record month)
SNG/MTT: -5
Bonusses: +$20

Obviously, I'm happy about the +$83, but I'm not satisfied with my game at the 10NL.
I'm still down 3.5 BI after 7.5k hands and I'm not able to have a couple of winning sessions in a row.

Everest Poker is a rollercoaster and generally the games are too loose: raises get no respect at all (I'm raising 4x or 5x + 1x per limper and I'm still getting called all the time), cbets get no respect (people just keep drawing and then folding on the river). But that's great you say?! Well, yeah, it is when they miss, but there are so many family pots, it becomes hard to win one. I guess, I'll have to tighten up a lot there and generally cut back on cbets and semibluffs big time. It makes for a high variance game though, which is challenging.

I'm thinking about making a video to, hopefully, get some feedback on my game as I don't feel confident about it right now.

June goals

Unless I drop some more buyins, in which case I'll drop back to 4NL, I'm going to play 10NL all month, aiming to put in about 5k hands (2 or 3tabling). No specific goals in terms of bb/100, just gonna try play a tight agressive game while focussing on building good reads (even though, I feel it's nearly impossible to put 80/4/2 calling stations on a range of hands). I do plan to shift to a solid abc-game on Everest, limiting semibluffing big time and valuebetting light instead.

It's weird though: on Pokerstars a lot of players are very tight and on Everest most players are way loose and still I'm struggling to consistenly capitalize on that.

Keep up the faith...

Astafas

Comparing sites and a milestone: a $500 BR

2009-05-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

I have spread out my bankroll across 4 sites: PokerStars, Party Poker, Everest Poker and Titan Poker. Except for Titan, where I still have some 40 euro left (a bonus I cannot withdraw until I earn like 2k TP's), I deposited/kept $100 on each of them.
The next few weeks I'll be rotating them playing 10NL so I can compare level of competition, software and bonus/loyalty programs. The goal is to increase my BR at every site from $100 to $200, dropping back to 5NL if I fall below $100.

So far Pokerstars and Everest seem to be the extremes in terms of level of play. At Pokerstars, the average is definately higher than Everest, and maybe that's because at Everest 10NL is the lowest stake. In fact, there are a lot of bad shortstackers and on a typical table, it seems there may be one or two decent players and two to four total fish. On Pokerstars I'd say there's about two or three decent players (at this level of course) and one or two fish. Both Party and Titan seems to be in between.

After a very nice and sunny week-end with the family and friends, I was eager to play some good poker last evening. I quickly got up $15 and after a short break, I decided to add a third table (playing at Everest). I ended up $25 in about 350 hands so that was great. I played well, got some decent hands and people were paying off nicely. Next up in the rotation is Titan Poker.

I also decided to play the 2+2 Pokercast Invitational on PokerStars, which is a freeroll (well, it's 1 fpp) with some nice prizes ($200 for first). I didn't last very long though.
I'm OTB with AKo and decide to raise a bunch of limpers. UTG+1 3bets and I call (bad, bad, bad, bad, bad). I miss the flop and fold to villain's flop bet.
Then I'm card dead for a while and have to push with 2BB left. I get two callers and I'm out. No biggy, but it's weird: I feel I understand the basics playing cashgames, but have no idea how to play tournies. Also, I find it difficult to mix a tourny with several cashgame tables opened as well.

For what it's worth: that 2+2 Pokercast is a good show, with a lot of interesting guests (last episode featured Daniel Negreanu), strategy segments with aejones, Sklansky and others regularly throwing in some advice and stuff to think about, and a decent coverage of the latest news. As it is sponsored by the Pokerstars VIP program, Pokerstars gets some extra attention. So, my advice is to check it out at the 2+2 site. You can also add it as a podcast via iTunes.

Have fun!

Astafas

Another rough session

2009-05-20T01:15:00.000-07:00

I put in about 500 hands yesterday evening and was stuck most of the time.
At first, I slowly build up some winnings but then two hands knocked me down 2 buyins, both against the same opponent.

This guy was playing like 70/35/8 so he was all over the place and already at a stack of 300bb.

First hand was a bit of a cooler I guess: he raises on BTN and I reraise from the BB with AKo. Flop comes Kxx, I bet, he raises (he was raising A LOT of hands) and I shove. Villain has AA and I loose $10.

A couple of hands later, he raises again from the BTN and I call from the BB with KQo, a MP limper calls as well.

Flop comes QJT, so I have TPWK and an OESD.
We check to initial raises who bets $3 into a $1.50 pot.

This was a tough spot for me: his bet really says I have something good but I don't want anyone to draw, so that could mean AA, KK, AQ, AK (unlikely), QQ (unlikely), JJ, and maybe AJ, TT, KQ, KJ. There was also the possibility he was trying to bully again.

Because he had been pushing people out of so many pots, I figured I was slightly behind at worst so I raise to $6. (maybe should have shoved or folded there)
Villain shoves and have to call $3.5 for a $16.5 pot, so I have to call.
Of course he shows QJ for top two and I have 10 outs (A, 9 and K) but miss them all.
I guess I didn't make a huge mistake here, but I just didn't get lucky.

I spent the rest of the session trying to get back and end up with a $3 loss.

Again, not a big loss, but again, not a win either.

Bye

Astafas

And then a not so decent session at 10NL

2009-05-19T00:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm right back to where I was: down 4 buyins at 10NL.

As I wasn't feeling all that fresh, I was thinking to skip my usual Sunday evening session and watch some tv instead. Finally, I did sit down to play and stupid me even opened 4 tables. I shouldn't have done that, in fact, I shouldn't have played at all (head-aches are bad for your A-game).

I quickly dropped a buyin due to a bluff that didn't work and several missed flops where I faced strength on the turn. After a little while I got it back up to almost break-even (this is when I should have quit), but then dropped back to - $4.

By this time, I started closing tables when I get AKo OTC and raise it to 3.5x and I get two callers. The flop is good: K42 with two clubs, so I make the 2/3 cbet.
Now the BB checkraises me to $6. For some reason, I thought he was semi-bluffing here and I wasn't going to fold TPTK (I guess the typical I'm stuck, so I'm not giving up this pot syndrome, so I shoved. But like I said, I was tired and had a head-ache and somehow I managed to not notice we were 150bb deep instead of 100bb.
A quick call by villain tells I'm beat, and he shows 22 for trip deuces.
FUCKING DONKEY ME!!!! I could have hit my head against the wall if it didn't hurt already. Seriously pissed.

I did fuck up in other ways as well though: I kept playing on a table I should have left (a super-aggro bigstack attacking every pot, combined with a few calling stations is a tough spot) or I should have at least adjusted my play.

Most of it was missed flops, big hands getting little action and a lack of focus.

I guess I'm a bad winner and a bad looser: if I'm ahead I start to push it to get even more or keep the pace when the cards aren't just as good, and if I'm behind I tend to push it to get it back. Arrrgh, patience is a not only a virtue but a necessity in poker.

I know I'm capable of beating 10NL, I just need to play solid every session, instead of playing well three sessions and then blowing it in the next.

Astafas

Decent session at 10NL

2009-05-14T02:18:00.001-07:00

I played some 350 hands at 10NL 6max yesterday, sticking to 2 tables as planned.
I quickly got up about $5 but then made a mistake (another lesson learned):

I raise PF with AKo and get a call from the BB.
Flop comes K93 rainbow and the BB checks.
I'm thinking I'm not gonna make much if I cbet, plus I wanted to balance my range here by checking.

Turn is a Q and now the BB leads out. Bingo! I continue my slow play and just call.
River is a T and now the BB checks and I bet half the pot, only to be raised...
And I make the call. BB shows a QJ straight and I loose 50BB.

F***ing idiot! DO NOT slowplay TPTK when the board shows some draws!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Won't be doing that again.

I loose another pot with KQ and a Q on the flop versus AQ.
The next few hands I rebuild from -$5 to +$5 and then I make another mistake.

I raise two limpers from the BB with AKo and both call.
Flop comes KQ6 with two diamonds (I have the ace of diamonds) and I make a potsized cbet (previous lesson learned) to keep people from drawing. Now the short-stack villain pushes, the other guys flats and I call.

I don't know why I called here. I didn't give the shortstack too much credit, but the overcall was a bit worrying. I guess I figured he was getting pretty good odds to draw, but could have a made hand as well. It should have been bet/fold, but I played it weak and just called.

Now the turn comes a J and the villain makes a 1/2 potbet and again I call.
River is a T of diamonds and I check (figuring villain might have made the flush).
Villain checks behind and shows a set of 6's.
I scoop the pot, but it was a horrible runner-runner suckout.
I was very surprised to see his set though, I really thought he would have played it harder to protect it against such a dangerous board. Perhaps he was afraid I had KK or QQ?

Anyway, I did play solid most of the time, putting in some good 3bets and generally showing some good aggression. I ended up $10 in the black, but it should have been break-even. I do tend to call raises too often: several times I called a raise on the flop and then folded to a turnbet. No big mistakes, but they do affect the bottom line.

Adios!

Astafas

Long term result of 10bb/100 at 4NL

2009-05-11T02:36:00.000-07:00

With a nice result yesterday, I've finally achieved my goal of 10bb/100 at the 4NL level (after almost 45k hands).

As I wrote in earlier posts, I had reviewed and adjusted my game in october last year because I had been treading water at 4NL untill then ( -3.7bb/100 over 18k hands). After that, my results improved a lot as I ran at 19.5bb/100 over then next 26k hands, resulting in 10bb/100 overall.

Yesterday was kinda meh: I wasn't playing very well and quickly dropped 1.5 buyins due to some bad calls and stupid bluffs. Nevertheless, I ended up winning $7, partly by paying a bit more attention but mostly because of the much appreciated tendency of some of my opponents to just donate their money.

The weirdest plays keep popping up at this level all the time, which makes it harder to try and put people on a range of hands, but obviously is a +EV game.

A short example: I'm in the BB with 86o, and one guy limps in in the CO, so it's just the two of us.
Flop comes J86 rainbow, and the villain in CO shoves his remaining $2.50 in the middle. I mean, why on earth would you shove there? I made the call and he had a weak Jack and my two pair held up.

I'm definately running extremely well this month and that won't last, but at this point I'm up $54. I'll be playing 10NL for the rest of the month and I'm just hoping that will turn out better than my first (short) attempt at 10NL. The differences between FR and 6max are pretty big and it seems 6max is a lot more fishier. Most nits probably stick to full ring.

I came across a new pokersite, SimbaPoker, which has a nice and fast client and offers some non-standard stuff like Dealer's choice and Chinese poker, a loss limit (basically you can set a certain limit on your losses, after which you account is frozen for a period you choose), and some extra security features. The site also offers a transparent progressive rakeback scheme, with rakeback up to 50%.
The problem is the lack of traffic (they're on their own independant network), but I'm hoping that will pick up in the next few weeks/months as I'd consider to switch to this site because of the good client/security/rakeback scheme. Also, I sympathise with the underdog. So, if you're interested, check it out at www.simbapoker.com.

Until next time...

Astafas

Bluffcalling?

2009-05-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

I was in a fun hand on 4NL 6max yesterday.

I pick up JJ OTB and openraise to 4bb, obviously hoping the blinds think I'm stealing.
The BB decides to 3bet me and he raises my $0.16 to $0.82(!).
A 5x reraise feels weird so I'm thinking he either has QQ, maybe KK or air a lot of the time.
Because we're bot 100 bb deep, I decide to just call (I have position).
The flop is perfect J 9 5 with two clubs.
Now the BB cbets $1.50 and I decide to shove it, now pretty convinced he does have that big pair.
Villain instacalls with... ATo, so he's pretty much drawing dead.

I guess 3betting an OTB raiser with ATo could be reasonable, however, why make it 5x?
Cbetting such a dry board, well, sure, why not.
But then calling a shove with ace high from someone who called your big preflop 3bet?
Please, send me more of these :)

Have a nice week-end!

Astafas

Short but winning session

2009-05-07T01:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't play too many hands yesterday, coz I spent most of the evening surfing to check out poker deals (bonusses and rakeback). Still managed to earn $13 in 150 hands 4NL and 150 hands 10NL.

I did witness some complete donkyness on my 4NL tables. Perhaps I was sitting at an exceptionally fishy table, but it seems level of play is actually dropping on these tables. I saw people going broke with second pair, paying off obvious straights/flushes etc. There was also an extreme tendency to limp. I was pretty card dead the first half hour, but after that I was able to take some money of my eager-to-donate opponents.

Just an example: I'm in the SB and have A2o. Everyone limps and, since I just sat down, I decide to complete instead of raise (raising wouldn't have worked anyhow, I learned later on).

Flop comes A K 9 rainbow and I check, figuring at least 1 of my 5 opponents must have a better ace than me. The table checks around. Turn is a ten. I'm still no really believing I'm the only one with an ace, but hey, let's find out: I make a potbet and get called by one player. River looks like a brick, but I check again, as I don't see many weaker hands than my TPWK callin a bet here. My opponent had called me with a 9. That's right: 4th pair in a limped pot, on a board with an ace and a king. Go figure.

On a 10NL I got to stack an opponent: I'm raising PF with AQo OTC and the button and the BB call. Flop is A x x (2hearts) and I make a potsized cbet and get a call
from the guy OTB. Turn is another heart and I check it. Now villain bets like $0.50 in a $2.00 pot, so I have to call. River is another heart and I make a small bet to induce a raise and sure enough he pushes AI (another $5) with a lower flush. Thank you.

Cheers

Astafas

Steamrolling 6max

2009-05-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't regretted my switch from full ring to 6max yet as I'm runnning hot as hell at the moment: up $42 in only 1500 hands for a 72 bb/100! Obviously not sustainable, but a welcome boost in terms of results and confidence.
Even better, I'm having great fun playing poker again, still only playing 1 or 2 tables. Nice bonus: I made a king high straight flush that got payed in full :)
I'll probably play some more 4NL first and if my results keep up, I'll add a few 10NL session again to see if I'll do better this time (have a $44 hole to fill there).

Yesterday, I ended up playing HU at one table and even though I normally would switch tables then, I decided to sit down a little longer. We were both sitting with a full stack and after playing pretty conservative for a while, I felt I had a decent feel for my opponent's game. He was limping and checking quite often pre-flop and made minbets or small bets when he didn't have a hand. He also wouldn't lay down his hand often if he had hit the flop. Great spot for me: I started raising a lot of hands and tried to apply as much pressure as possible. After ten minutes or so (could have been five) he called bets on every street with his flopped top pair against my two pair and he lost half his stack.

By now some more players join the table again, and a little later I felt the HU guy and another player. Always feels nice :) How people can 4-table or 6-table HU is beyond me though: I had trouble keeping up playing 1 table 6max and 1 table HU.

Generally 6max seems pretty straight forward: play very aggressive, raise with a wide range of hands and add a (very) few tricky plays (like a check on the flop or a flatcall PF with a big pair). When facing real strength, let it go if you're likely behind. A lot of players will fold too often and the few aggro's are trappable.

I'm still not very comfortable playing pots OOP and I tend to play a lot more conservative when I'm called PF and/or on the flop. I'm aware this is a leak so any suggestions on how to deal with that kind of situations (PF raise, villain call IP, flop cbet, villain call/raise and I have missed) would be appreciated.

On a side note: in episode 9 of this season's High Stakes Poker, Tom Dwan plays an interesting pot with Howard Lederer: Lederer raises, Dwan reraises in position, Lederer 4bets and now Dwan raises yet again! I won't spoil the rest of the hand and the holecards, so head over to youtube to check it out yourself.

In another cool hand Phil Laak and Patrick Antonius go at it and here Antonius makes a great read. Excellent stuff to think about (it would be even better to hear Antonius explain his thinking there).

This episode also includes a nice degen story: at one point Antonio Esfandiari claims his stack is 50k short (as in $50,000!). Since he keeps saying he's 100% sure, it's a pretty bad situation. Turns out there are still 2 25k chips in his paper bag. I would have checked my bag 5 times to make sure it's empty, but I guess these guys handle money a bit differently.

Have a good time at the tables!

Astafas

April recap

2009-04-30T00:35:00.000-07:00

Results for April:

4NL FR: 922 hands at 1.5 bb/100 for $0.57
4NL 6max: 712 hands at 50.2 bb/100 for $14.30
10NL: 2002 hands at -9.6 bb/100 for -$19.22

Total: 3636 hands and a loss of $4.35

I must say that I thought it would have been worse. It definately felt worse.

My second 6max 4NL session was decent. I did make a few bad calls, where I put money in when I was behind, but this time it was my turn to suck out a couple of times. Still I was running over my tables most of the time and raising so many hands and betting so often makes people thing you're full of it all the time, so I got calls on some big hands. I also noticed I was able to make a good read several times and making notes and watching how my opponents play did improve my result.

Also I focused on 3betting this session, looking for spots to 3bet myself and keeping a close eye on when others were 3betting.

In one hand I decided to 3bet with AQo when villain playing something like 20/14 raised OTB to 3x. He folded quickly.

A few hands later a standard situation I guess: a really tight (especially for 6max) player playing stats like 9/4 makes it 5x in the CO after one player has limped.
Obviously, I put him on a pretty decent hand, somthing like AQ+ or TT+.
I'm in the SB with AA, so now I'm hoping my aggressive image will pay off. I decide to raise big to 4x, making it $0.80 to go and soon enough all the money goes in, him holding KK and I felt him.

A third hand I 3bet, a somewhat aggressive player raises OTB and I 3bet 4x with AKs from the SB, villain calls. The flop is a rainbow jack and two lows, one heart. Maybe I should have cbet this flop but I checked as did villain. Turn is a 9 and I decide to check again, because I feel I cannot rep much here and by now villain might have made a pair or more. Villain bets and I let it go. I probably would have bet myself if that 9 was a heart.

Well, at least I was doing things for a reason (right or wrong) instead of just betting and hope for the best of it.

Have a nice day!

Loosing is a pain...

2009-04-29T03:28:00.000-07:00

My first attempt moving up to 10NL hasn't gone well. I'm down about 4 buyins and because my confidence took quite a hit, I'm taking a step back for a couple of days/weeks? I wasn't playing that awful as a couple of hands were close, but I did get too much money in in marginal spots.

In one hand I hit two pair and build a big pot and villain rivers his two pair and I loose a buyin.

In another hand, I play aggressive but miss my OESD + FD on the river: another buyin gone.

A third buyin was lost in a hand where I made the wrong read.
I raise in LP with KK and get a call from villain (I think he was OTB).
Now this guy was playing rather aggressive and had called my raises a couple of times before.
Flop comes something like 5c4c9h and I make a potsized cbet which he calls.
Turn is a jack and I bet little over half the put (thinking he was on a draw).
He raises me, but it's not a big raise. At this point I'm in doubt: he could have a made hand, like a set or two pair or he could have a flush-draw or a combo-draw. Also, he probably knows I have an overpair here. I felt calling was no option, so it was push in or fold.
I pushed and he showed pocket 4's: adios to another buyin.
Afterwards, I was thinking about the size of his raise: maybe the fact that he put in a small raise should have told me he didn't have a draw...

I wasn't playing very well, got no action on my big hands, got a bit unlucky in a few spots and at the end I felt a tilt coming so I shut down the computer and took the loss.

It's not that big of a hit: my bankroll is still over $400 and I could continue at the 10NL tables but it doesn't feel right. A loss of a few buyins shouldn't destroy my confidence up to a point I'm wondering if I even have the slightest idea of what I'm doing.

Either way, I feel a $20 loss at the 5NL and a $40 loss at the 10NL warrants some reflection, so I've decided to take it slower and just stick to 1 or two tables and really think about the game, the hands and the decisions I make. Too often, I get into this numb clicking mode, not putting much thought into what I'm doing, not paying too much attention to what others are doing etc.

Also, I'm gonna try and switch to 6-max, partly because I'm worried playing 1 or 2 tables FR will bore me into bad play and partly because I feel 6-max tables allows you to get a better understanding of how your opponents play and it forces a more aggressive game. In the unlikely event I would progess to higher stakes, 6-max is more standard anyway.

Because I really want this to be a(nother) new start, I'm disregarding any previous results (even started a clean HEM database).

My goals for the rest of the year is to mix in 5NL and 10NL:
8k 5NL at 15 bb/100
20k 10NL at 8 bb/100

Considering the amount of time I put into poker (about 3 to 4 evenings per week), these goals are an absolute minimum to justify continuing to play poker. Money-wise it's not worth my time and if there's no progress, it makes more sense to devote my time to other fun things. Even though I enjoy poker a lot, it's not really a 'relaxing' activity, so I'd like some return on my time and 'stress' investment if I'm to keep playing in the future.

Anyway, first session yesterday was great: mostly 1 table (6max 5NL). I played aggressive, got a decent feel for my opponents' game and had a good result (up $9 in about 380 hands), picking up lots of pots (I even managed to win the first 7 hands I played). No 'grinder' feeling, no 'standard' clicking and no stress keeping up with all the tables, taking plenty of notes and generally having a good time.

Greetz!

Astafas

It's been a while

2009-04-24T07:09:00.001-07:00

Not much poker this month, as I've been on nice vacation in France for a week.

Even though last month, I was heading for a record result, it all went south in the last couple of session: a - $28 session on the 4NL tables and the next day a - $18 session on the 10NL tables and my awesome high of $55 up was mostly gone.

I did clear my reload bonus on Party Poker, but lost just as much chasing the partypoints/playing too many tables.

I have been playing 10NL this month (a little down for now) and I am kinda surprised about the difference between 10NL and 4NL: people are a lot more tight (table VPIP is often around 10-15) and there's a lot less action. There are many nits and even more shortstackers, which is an absolute pain, because then there is not much money to be made. Still, I'm not too worried yet, being down less than 1 buyin and I'm also running below expectation (AA loosing against JJ, KK against AA, QQ against KK etc.) Nevertheless, I have cut back on the multitabling and now stick to 4 tables or less.

In case you haven't watched season 5 of High Stakes Poker, check out youtube now, coz it is awesome, especially the first group of players with Greenstein, Dwan, Elezra, Eastgate etc. are spectacular and show some world class poker, not to mention the biggest televised cash game pot in history. The only problem: they should post a "don't try this at home" message at the start of each episode: for Tom Dwan's aggressive style to work, you need to play high stakes and ... be Tom Dwan ;)

When I raise on the flop with my open-ended straight draw + backdoor flush draw and then bet again on the flop after picking up the flush draw, people just call me with a pair of queens and I miss my many outs (bye bye $10).

May your opponents never draw out!

Astafas

Eleventh consecutive winning session

2009-03-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

Even though I thought I was jinxing myself when I wrote I had won 7 sessions in a row, the pokergods havent't punished me (yet).

Last weekend I played on Saterday and Sunday evenings, and even though I took a hit early on in both session, I succeeded in showing a profit at the end of each session.

So, now I have won eleven sessions in a row and my target of a long term result
of 10bb/100 at the 4NL is within my reach as I'm at 8.3bb/100 after 35k hands.

My play wasn't all that good actually. I made a horrendous call with pocket jacks when I knew they were no good and I definately bluffed in spots where I shouldn't have a couple of times. On the other hand, opponents had drawn out on the river twice in a big pot, even though I did't lay them the right price. It's funny though, if you're winning you don't mind the suckouts all that much.

I'll have to keep playing 6 tables or more to be able to clear my $25 bonus this month, but it does effect my results more than I like.

I'm seriously considering moving up to the 10NL tables, weather I achieve that 10bb/100 target this month or not. At this point I'm just grinding it without too much thought. I know I'm beating this level and I just have to put in the hands, but playing on auto-pilot doesn't make me a better player so I guess I need to get out of my comfort zone soon. The lack of challenge is making me a lazy player.

Maybe I'm overdoing it in the bankroll management department...

So here's the plan for the rest of the month:
Normally I play 3 or 4 nights a week: every Sunday and 2 or 3 weekdays.
If I have improved my overall bb/100 at 4NL on the weekdays, I'll play 10NL on Sunday.
Improving the overall bb/100 would mean winning at least 10bb/100 and I think Sunday is a good evening to take a shot because of increased traffic.

Have a great time at the tables!

Multitabling

2009-03-04T03:43:00.000-08:00

I had received a new reload bonus from Party Poker (25% up to $100), so I added $100 to my account. This bonus clears in parts of $5 and I'll have to earn 50 party points per $5. Usually I 4-table, playing about 500 hands per session, which earns me between 15 and 25 party points. Because this bonus expires in 30 days, I'd have to increase my volume if I want to score that $25 bonus.

Yesterday, I tried to add some more tables up to a point where I was playing 9 tables. I rather quickly had to shut down two of them, because I couldn't keep up and I felt I was destined to make some huge mistakes. Overall, it was a swingy session: up $6, down $5, up $3, down $2 and finally up $5.

I guess 6 or 7 tabling should be doable without trashing my winrate. I'm hoping to play 10-12 more sessions this month, so I'll be able to clear most if not all of that bonus.

Even though I misplayed a couple of hands yesterday, I was able to make some good reads and pick up on bluffs.

One hand had me troubled (and because this type of hands occurs regularly I would appreciate some feedback:

Villain UTG limps, a couple of players in MP limp as well and I make a good raise with my JJ.
Now, villain reraises me (3x) and I make the call (should I fold JJ here?)

Flop comes 10 high with no big draws and villain makes a potsize bet (about $2).
I make the call (and immediately knew it was a bad play).
Turn is a blank and villain bets again (half pot) and I fold my JJ.
I really should just fold on the flop here and wait for a better spot.
I hate folding an overpair here, but I'm probably facing AA, KK, or QQ often enough to make folding the correct play.

'till next time...

February review

2009-03-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

In February I have played almost 4k hands at the 4NL tables, winning $38 (24 BB/100) which was a great result. After picking up $2 in a short session at 10NL, I'm up $40 for the month.

The last couple of months I went from a break-even player to a winning player: after my first 18k hands I was down $28 (-3.7 BB/100), the next 15k hands resulted in a profit of $134 (22 BB/100). Combined I'm at 7.9 BB/100 at the 4NL after 34k hands and I feel I could take a shot at 10NL. In March, I will still mostly play 4NL though, because I'm aiming to reach 10 BB/100 before I move up to 10NL.

Last night was a good start: up $15 in almost 600 hands.
One hand stood out for me:
I had a maniac on my right, who was playing at something like 75/45/inf.
HE was raising and reraising constantly and often people just folded. One guy called him and the maniac won a big pot and was at $12.
I had been in a couple of pots with him, but I hadn't flopped anything or he was pushing me off my hands (twice I had top pair but a very crappy kicker). Up until then I didn't like my hand enough to put the chips in the middle and I knew I had the perfect position and just had to wait for a strong hand.

So a couple of hands later it gets folded to the maniac, who open-raises to 4BB, I call with KJo and both the blinds call as well.
The flop comes 6c5cJh and the blinds check. The maniac checks as well. Because I was willing to take a risk in order to have a shot at his stack, I decided to check as well (normally I would bet here about 99% of the time).
With the drawheavy board, I'm pretty confident I have the best hand at this point.
Turn is a Ts and again both blinds check.
The maniac bets 2/3 of the pot and I throw in a decent raise...
And again he tries to push me off by shoving it. Even though I only had top pair
with a decent kicker, I had to make the call and he showed K9o and gets stacked.
Four hands later, he dumps the rest of his stack and leaves.

Sayonara!

Seventh consecutive winning session...

2009-02-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

...even though I was playing rather weak and I didn't hit anything the first hour and a half, I managed to book another winning session last night. I'm probably jinxing myself but there it is: a new record streak of 7 winning sessions in a row.

I have tightened up even more the last few weeks, stats are usually around 17/8/2.5.
Yesterday I saw a particular fish at the table: he was minbetting every made hand (and folding the others). And when I say minbetting I mean betting 1BB on the flop, on the turn, and on the river with a flopped nut flush. In the one hand we played, he outdrew my second pair on the river (I should have made a bigger raise). Of course, a few hands later he got felted. This guy was so trying NOT to win any money, it was funny.

For the most part, I played ok, again picking up a lot of uncontested pots while waiting for a big one. One straight paid off max, but then I had to slowplay a set into oblivion:
I raise 4 BB in LP with TT and get called by an EP limper.
Flop comes a nice AT6 rainbow, villain checks and I check behind, because often he will not have anything to call with here. Turn brings a king and villain bets, I raise and he calls. We get it in on the river and he shows QJ for a straight.
Because I'd almost never call a raise with QJ OOP, it didn't cross my mind some do...
Good thing my opponent wasn't full stacked.

Another thing I often see (and occasionally, I make the same mistake) is that people tend to forget what happened on earlier streets. If you flop QT5 and check your queen, people assume you don't have a queen most of the time, and you can get paid off some (like in a limped pot). Yesterday, I even saw a couple of times where the turn fills a possible flushdraw, it gets checked around and then people call big bets on the river.

Until next time...

All is well

2009-02-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks, I have been running pretty good. I started the month with a loosing session, but the last 5 sesssions I have been up and, so far, I'm ahead $25 in 2.5k hands. Yesterday was a lot of fun: I definately played my A game: selective but aggressive and when the cards are falling right as well... People were folding when I was (semi-)bluffing and calling when I had the goods.

I was also able to pick up on bluffs by villains. The river bluff seems very popular amongst a lot of players at my tables. Check/calling every street and then betting the river often indicates a bluff. I'm trying to play a bit more aggressive post flop and that really pays off.

After clearing my reload bonus ($10) at Part Poker, I got a mail from Pokerstars about their 25billionth hand promotions, including a nice 25% reload bonus. So, I deposited $80 in my account and will have to accumulate 400 base FPP's to clear that $20 bonus. Because I didn't have a clue how many hands that is at the 5NL, I played a short session of 80 hands and got... 1 FPP. So that's going take a while.

One hand kinda bugged me:

I pick up AA UTG+1 and I make it $0.20 (4BB) to go.
It gets folded to the button, who calls.
The big blind calls as well, and the pot is $0.67

Now the flop comes 8c 7h 5c and the big blind makes a potsize donkbet,
and I go into the tank...

I figure there's 4 possibilities:

he has a straight/set and wants to protect his hand: possible, but I'm very likely to make a cbet, that might be called by the button, so check/raising seems more profitable.

he has a big draw: as flush and/or straight draw. again, possible, but why bet the pot? surely, check/call or check/raise is more likely.

he has some other hand like an over pair: unlikely, why would you bet a hand like that with two people left to act?

he knows this is a bad flop for a big pair or AK/AQ kinda hands and decides to bluff. Possible, but he is OOP.

I just didn't know here and because I had the button behind me, I decided to fold.
I'm sure reraising big here can often be the right play and if it were heads up, I probably would have done just that.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see my opponents cards, because the button shoved and after a while the big blind folded. In the end, I guess folding might have been the right decision this time. These kind of hands do reveal a lot of info about a players style, so this would have been a big note if the cards had been shown.

Be cool.

January recap

2009-02-03T04:40:00.000-08:00

January sure was a bleh month: up $20 and all the way down again to - $1.
I played almost 6k hands and started off well, but three loosing sessions in a row (in one I lost 3 buyins) later I was just hoping to break even. Last Saturday, I was a bit tired so I decided to play a short session on 10NL at Titan. I quickly picked up $7.50 which was nice. Because I picked up $20 in bonusses, I ended up adding about $24 to my bankroll.

I did have my first live game, having a homegame with my collegues at my place. Most of them have little to none experience and with the low stakes ($0.02-$0.05) the play was extremely loose and passive. I decided to play tight and just valuebet my big hands and I doubled up this way. One of the players hit a real nice run of cards, hitting 3 boats and a couple of straights/flushes. Even though it wasn't great poker, we did have a good time.

I have started marking hands I don't play well, so I can replay them with Holdem Manager. I plan on reviewing these hands in detail, both loosing hands (obviously) and winning hands (did I make maximum value?).

Be well and play well!

Baaaad day

2009-01-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

Yup, yesterday evening didn't go too well. A combo of bad play and worse luck hit me big time. At one table I lost three big hands in a row (QQ, TT, AK) and I was down 4 buyins in no time.

I was definately playing too aggressive and tilting a bit as well, up to a point where my UTG raise (with AKo) got shoved by the shortstack (well, he did have 45 BB). I felt he was shoving with a wide range because he might think I was on a complete tilt, so I called. My read was correct as he showed AQo, but when things go wrong, they do go wrong all the way, and he caught a queen on the turn.

I was really pissed at myself, because even though I took some bad beats, I spewed chips as well. So, I had a choice: accept my losses and call it a day or try to win some back. Because I knew I was going to be in a shitty mood being down $20, I took a deep breath and tried to make a comeback. I ended up being down $12.

You win some and you loose some...

The good news is the money from Titan Poker is now in my Moneybookers account, so that went really smooth.

Exit Titan Poker

2009-01-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

I have decided to withdraw my bankroll on Titan Poker and I'll probably even cash out as well. I haven't really played a lot there, mainly because the player base is a lot less than what I'm used to at Party Poker and I don't like the software that much. Especially when multi-tabling it's a pain, because you switch to mini-view, which is too small for me.

I'll have to leave my no-deposit bonus though, as I'm nowhere near the 1500 tp's I need to be able to withdraw that. So, the plan is to cash out everything except the bonus (about $50). Because I was going to take a shot at 10NL, I'll play some 10NL session with that bonus.

Apparantly, it will take 2-5 days before the cash is in my moneybookers account and some players have been requested to email id shots when trying to cash out. I can understand sites want to secure these kind of transactions, but I find it curious that kind of stuff isn't required when you deposit.

I just hope it won't be too much of a hassle and I can get my money fast.

Because I should be rolled for 10NL by March/April, I'm thinking about where to play. Should I go for another first-deposit bonus on a new site? Or should I return to Everest (lots of bad players I read) or just stick to Party Poker?
I didn't really like the Everest software (slow network and poor software for multi-tabling), but 10NL is the smallest stake there, so the competition might be weaker compared to other sites.

Any suggestions on that part are appreciated.

Currently I'm running 7BB/100 over 27k hands at 4NL, even at 30BB/100 over 9k hands since October 2008 (when I made some major adjustments to my game). My goal is to try and push that up to 10BB/100 over 40k hands and than take a decent shot at 10NL.
I really don't know what to expect in terms of stronger competition: is there a substantial difference? Is it the same level of play, but just for a little more money?

Again, any input on that is welcome.

PS: My favorite poker show 'High Stakes Poker' is currently running season 5, so I'll be checking out Youtube. I'm sure most poker players know that show, but if you don't, go check it out!!

Untill next time!

Sunday smile

2009-01-19T00:47:00.000-08:00

Had a great poker evening yesterday. I was hitting left and right and picking up a lot of other pots with aggression. Must have had at least 3 or 4 sets and a couple of straights (one low-end straight did cost me half a buyin). At the end of the session I was up $15. Again, I saw the weirdest plays: people calling big bets with second or even third pair, people calling with two pair with a 3flush on the table and a big bet. Here's one of those weird hands:

Villain in MP raises 4 bb to $0.16.
It gets folded to me in the SB and I have KK.
I don't like to slowplay KK OOP so I reraise to $0.50.
Now the villain instashoves and I make the call.
He has AKo
Now I had been raising quite a bit (because I was getting good cards), but a shove?
Turns out he would have won the pot if he just flatcalled.
The flop show AQx and I'm already cursing. Turn is a king, river blanks and I pick up the pot.

Another interesting hand:

I pick up 77 in LP and I raise two limpers to $0.24.
Now I get repopped to $1.24 by a maniac OTB. I only had about 30 hands on him but his stats were about 70/35/5/33. Plus I had seen him do that (reraising OTB) twice before. Because three 3bets in 30 hands did seem quite a lot, I decided to make the call.... and i hit a set on the flop. He bets half the pot and I shove and get a quick call. He shows aces and I pick up the pot: wrong read, but great result.
A couple of hands later I raise again with 44 and again he reraises me. This time I fold.

I felt another guy, calling his MP raise with 88. I flop a set again, he bets and I shove (he was shortstacked). I get a call (JJ) and even hit quads on the river.

Biggest pot I lost was half a buy-in when I flop two pair and villain flops a set.

I also played a quick $0.50 SNG on Titan (but wasn't really paying too much attention.

I'm not getting any cards and have about my starting stack of 1500 when the blinds get to 50/100. Now I see a raise to 200 in front of me, and I decide to gamble a bit, planning to bluff on the flop/turn, so I call with 5h4h. The BB minraises to 300, Initial raiser calls so I have to put in another 100 into a 850 pot.
Flop come AsQhTh. Initial raiser bets half the pot and I shove my remaining 1200.
Well, both opponents call, and I cheer when the turn is another heart.
Because the BB is holding the Ah, I say 'no more hearts' but of course....
And that was it...

Have fun at the tables!

Treading water

2009-01-15T00:06:00.000-08:00

I played a rather long session yesterday (about 4 hours) and I got nowhere: up $3
I hit a couple of sets but didn't really get payed off, other than that: not a single straight or flush and I think one full house. I was just not hitting any flops, and I even had to get lucky to stay in the black:

Two guys limp in and the button raises to $0.24.
He wasn't superaggro, but I held QQ so I figured I was ahead of his range.
Because I felt the limpers would tag along if I just flatcalled, I repopped to $0.80.
Now the button shoves for another $1.80 and I make the (bad?) call.
He shows KK and I hit a Q on the flop. Standard 2-outer suck-out :)

I gues I was playing too weak the first half of the session, check/calling/folding too often. After a short break, I tried to show more aggression and got back from
- $4 to + $3.

I had a 20% reload bonus, so I deposited $50 and cleared the $10 bonus in the same session. It's not much but this way the roll grows little by little...

A quick update

2009-01-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

I've been looking into adding some MTT's (freerolls that is) to my playing schedule, so I stumbled on a couple of big freeroll MTT's on Party Poker and played a few.

First one was a Limit Holdem tournament, and, low and behold, I cash!
Errm, that actually means I ended about 800th out of over 7k players and scored a wonderful $0.03! It was fun though, because, believe it or not, I had never played limit holdem. Boy, that really is a very different game than NLHE. People were calling, limping, raising with anything and then calling every street with almost anything. I always thought pots would be smaller (because it is LIMIT) but it seemed the complete opposite (of course a freeroll MTT is never standard play).
Still, it's felt really weird not being able to protect your hand and see so many multiway pots.

I was also playing a couple of 4NL cash game tables at the same time and I must say, that combo didn't work very well for me. I tried it again a couple of days later and I ended up pushing every hand in the freeroll, so I could get back to only cash game tables asap. Since the potential reward from the freerolls is a lot less than what cash tables could net me, I'll be passing on those MTT freerolls for now.

My regular game has been meh: down $10 in the first session of the month (played very poorly), up $10 in the next, break-even in the third (good start, bad end).

Standard ABC poker is a winning strategy at these stakes, but only if you don't donk on a regular base :)

Still, I'm up a little and used my PP to get $10 in bonus, so that bankroll is getting bigger (slowwwwwly).

Let's try and put in a great session tonight.

May your aces hold up!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

First of all: a happy and healthy 2009 for everyone!! :)

Looking back on 2008

I had a couple of great months playing 2NL on Everest, which helped building a bit of a bankroll but led me to believe I actually knew what I was doing. So when I moved up to the 4NL on Stars and Party poker I had to think again, because I was moving up and down and up and down again, eventually getting nowhere...

Mid October, I decided to take a step back and take a look at how I was playing and, after rereading Dan Harrington on Cash 1&2, I tried again. More focus, more aggression, more patience, less tilting, less optimistic calls etc...

The last three months were great, with December turning out to be my best month ever: up $41 in only 2k hands.

Looking forward to 2009

Obviously, it's a lot more motivating to play disciplined and patient if it shows in your results, so I'm curious to find out if I've actually gotten (a little) better or if I have just been lucky.

I'll keep playing the 4NL for a couple of months and, if all goes well, move to the 10NL around April.

I have no specific goals for 2009 in terms of winnings or number of hands or anything. My main goal is to improve on my game, keep enjoying it and become a winning 10NL player in the course of this brand new year. If things go really well, I might add some SNG's or MTT's to my calendar as well.

Have a great 2009!

November recap

2008-12-08T04:41:00.000-08:00

Even though it's getting pretty cold outside, the sun is shining on my pokergame!

November was great: at one point I was up $39 in 1.400 hands but then I dropped back to $23 in 1.800 hands. I'm guessing some of it was playing a little better and some of it was just hitting well. December has started out nice too: up $18 in 400 hands.

Like I wrote earlier, I decided to focus on my game instead of volume and bb/100 and since I made that shift mid October, I won $58 in 3.500 hands (40 bb/100!!). I know the sample is very small and that kind of results isn't sustainable, but I'm just hoping I'm finally heading in the right direction.

May the cards be with you!

Are the tides turning?

2008-11-19T02:50:00.000-08:00

I have been playing less poker the last few weeks: less sessions and shorter sessions. I only sat down at the tables when I really wanted to play and felt really focused on playing well.

Maybe I'm just running hot but still playing bad, but things started to improve, moving from - $23 mid October to - $8 by the end of October. This month I have only played 700 hands but I'm up $21 for a whopping 75 BB/100 (definately on a heater). I'm still learning, making plenty of mistakes but enjoying the game.

Still running bad

2008-10-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

Pfffff, things aren't really turning around as this is becoming yet another loosing month.

It seems that the more I read and the more I try to play by the book: a solid tight but agressive style, the worse my results are.

The last few sessions I have been playing 18/8/2.5, raising with consideration of position and table, only calling raises with strong hands or good odds but it's not getting me anywere.

Yesterday I lost about $5. I really felt I was at least playing ok but I didn't hit anything big except one set and that turned out to be a set over set hand...

It is very frustrating to not hit any hands and getting run out when I do have somewhat of a hand.

It's not all bad luck though, the set over set hand shouldn't have cost me a buyin and I made a few smaller (and cheaper) mistakes. I do try to keep learning from them and it feels like I'm understanding the game better and better but I'm just not seeing that in my results.

The weird thing is I can spot lots of players that make frequent and rather big mistakes, but someone else is always profiting from those instead of me.

I still enjoy playing though and it's not like I have to worry about the money I'm loosing at the moment, but it is hard to keep motivated if there's no improvement to be noticed.

I'm considering moving some of my bankroll to a new site that offers rakeback. Half of my roll is just sitting there on Titan because I need to pick up a lot of titan points to be able to withdraw my bonus there, but that's just not possible on the micro-stakes tables plus there's not a lot of players. I mainly play at Partypoker, because there's a lot of tables and I like the software but their loyalty program is not interesting for lowstakes players and they offer no rakeback.

Well, I guess I should just keep on trying...

Have fun at the tables!!!

September disaster

2008-10-01T02:18:00.000-07:00

I have not played any poker for the last 10 days. Why? Because I lost big time. I'm down $26 for this month and I did not achieve any of my goals for September.

I lost about $10 at the 4NL tables. I started ok but then had one horrible session of -$18.
I ended a very slight winner at the 2NL tables but took a rather big hit of -$16 at the 10NL tables in just one session. Now it's not all that terrible in terms of $. I lost a buyin when I got drawn out but I also lost a buyin when villain spikes a Q on the river to make top two pair against my two pair. So I was ahead in that hand but really shouldn't have called the shove on the river.

I keep making the same mistakes, playing good most of the time but making few but very expensive mistakes. I do feel I need to get the pressure off since there seems to be more focus on putting in as many hands as possible and playing very result-oriented. I really need to just focus on my game and forget about volume or bb/100 for a while. I have to be honest to myself and realize I don't have enough of an edge to be able to muli-table and get great results.

So because I was playing bad and obviously not feeling great about it, I took a little break.

The next few days I will start playing again, but I will stick to 1 table at 4NL and a couple of 2-tables session at 2NL. The only goal for October is to focus on every single hand, pay attention to the table and take the time for every decision. Just try to play a tight aggressive ABC-poker game. So let's see how that works out first and then take it from there.

Luck runs out...

A hand problem

2008-09-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a hand I played yesterday and when I looked back on it, I didn't really I played it well or not:

Villain raises to 10 BB ($0.20) in MP and it gets folded to me.
I'm on the cutoff with pocket queens and I decide to reraise to 25 BB.
I had two reasons: the intial raise was pretty big and I wanted to know if I was up against Aces or Kings, and I didn't want anyone behind me to enter the pot.

Villain just calls the reraise. I really think he would have reraised me if he had Aces or Kings because he was out of position. Since, I don't think he would have raised with small pocket pairs or called with hands like AQ, AJ, I put him on QQ, JJ, TT maybe AK or a smaller pocket pair.

The flop comes 10, 7, 2 rainbow and he checks it to me.
At this point I have about 120 BB left (villain has me covered) and the pot is 100 BB and I shove it. At the time I thought I was very likely to be ahead (unless he did have Aces or Kings or made a set with 10's). He called and showed a pair of Jacks and I took the pot.

So even though I won the hand, I'm not too sure I should have shoved there. I would not have called the push with Jacks so against a better player it might have been better to bet less to induce a call?

What would have been the right play if I had had 200 BB or more behind?

Feel free to comment...

2NL is a crazy place

2008-09-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

Because I wasn't feeling top notch yesterday, I decided to sit down at a few 2NL tables at Pokerstars. I only played some 500 hands and made a little profit, but nothing big.

One hand did remind me 2NL is like the bottom of the food chain in poker.
There is an UTG raise to 4BB and I make the call OTB with pocket 8's. The BB decides to reraise to 10 BB. Now the initial raisers shoves (he had about 60 BB), and because I'm thinking at least one of them has to have my 8's beat, I fold. The BB calls the shove.
Well, UTG had a pair of deuces and the BB had KQo...
UTG's deuces held up and he takes the pot.

I did remember players at this level tend not think too much and some even forget earlier streets in a hand: in a 3-way pot, I'm drawing to a flush that I make on the turn. I decide to check it and simply call the bet. On the river, I make a donkbet of 2$ hoping at least one of my opponents is foolish enough to call me and sure enough one of them makes the call.

You see a myraid of extreme styles at these tables: übernits with stats like 4/1/0.2 and wannabe bullies with stats around 35/25/6. I don't mind the first group at all. Most of the time they'll only stay in the hand with the absolute nuts. The second group is a bit more frustrating: you know they'll get stacked sooner or later, but they raise so many pots, you can't really call (because of position). Actually, raises get no respect at all. Raising to 4 or 5 BB has no effect: you'll still end up in a 4-way pot a lot of time.

Well, I want to pick up another 10-15 BI at this stake and then I hope I'll never have to look back.

When you're not feeling well...

2008-09-10T00:44:00.000-07:00

... you probably shouldn't play any poker. I've been having head-aches the last few days and I'm feeling very tired. Whereas a couple of weeks/months ago, that wouldn't have stopped me from playing poker, I decided not to play. I most likely would have played a horrible game and lost some or a lot of my bankroll, so it's better to sit it out.

I did watch all episodes of Poker After Dark, the cash game with durrr, helmuth, baxter etc. Even though I think High Stakes is a better show, it sure was interesting to see how different these players play the game. I was very impressed with Dwan's play: he seemed to know where he was in just about every hand. Helmuth behaved (and played) like his usual childish self, so nothing new there. I just think his style is not the most succesful in the toplevel poker of today. Cunningham was solid as usual.

Overall not a bad show, but the host is a joke and the commentary wasn't all that great either. Putting Baxter, Cunningham and Laliberté in one show didn't do much for interesting table talk. Next time, throw Matusow, Laak or Negreanu in the mix guys!

Cya next time!

When luck smiles upon you...

2008-09-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

... you can win even when playing bad.

And playing a poor game is what I did yesterday. I even called an allin donkbet on the flop with top pair (just don't ask me why). Obviously I was beat. Again I was making bad calls all over the place, though somehow I managed to only loose 3 big pots: the donkbet, a set over set hand (where a third flushcard on the turn did save me some money) and a flopped top pair (Jacks) against pocket kings.

How did I manage that? Well, being lucky comes to mind. On at least three hands, I was well behind on the flop and caught up nicely :) In one of those hands, I raised on the flop with the nut flush draw, fired again on the turn and made a big bet on the river when I had hit my flush. I figured I had some folding equity on the flop and knew my opponent wouldn't put me on a flush if I hit. The guy had two pair on the turn, but failed to reraise me.

Even better than drawing out: I hit full house twice when my opponent had a set which won me 2 BI. First hand I call a raise with 99. The flop comes A, 9, blank and the raiser bets again and calls my reraise. The turn is a blank and my bet is called again, so I put him on AK, AQ, AJ, maybe AA (though he would have reraised me on the flop). The river brings a beautiful A, so I push and I get a call with AQ.

You would think that drawing out a couple of times and getting these great hands would mean a big winning session right? I ended up with $6 in about 700 hands, so that's how bad I played.

Two things give me hope: I have been up 5 consecutive sessions now and my results could even have been a lot better because most of the time I only loose small pots and the very few big ones are just bad luck or spots where I made mistakes that I know I can get rid of.

Now I just have to prove that...

Down and up

2008-09-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

I was very motivated to make a good start for this month when I sat down at the tables last night. The cards, however, decided differently.

First I suffer the classical 2-outer: I raise in EP with AA, get reraised, reraise again etc. so we end up all in preflop. My opponent has kings and sure enough, he hits a king on the turn.

Only a couple of hands later, I limp in EP with 44 and three other players limp as well.
The flop comes 2, 4, 6 rainbow and I bet out and get reraised. We end up going all in (my bad) and they guy had flopped a straight. So, a bit of a cooler there.

So now I'm down about $9 and I'm quite frustrated but I told to myself this was a chance to overcome tilt and I tried to schake it off.

It took me another 800 hands to end the day up $2.50.

All things considered, that's not a bad result: I hadn't gotten that many great hands (and even less great flops) and if those two hands went the other way, I could have been up $22. I did play ok, showing plenty aggression and making a couple of good (at least I think) laydowns. I did call some riverbets I shouldn't have, but since the pots where smallish, that didn't hurt too much.

Better luck next time....

Reasonable session last night

2008-08-29T00:54:00.000-07:00

I had a great session at 4NL, though I only played some 350 hands, I won over two BI.
I won a big pot of over $6 and generally played tight but aggressive, picking up uncontested pots and I got pretty good cards as well. Only after 5 minutes into the game, I flop a straight on two tables at the same time :) Didn't get paid on those though :(

After that I decided to play some 6-max at the 2NL tables on PokerStars. I think I've played less than 500 hands 6-max so I'm not used to that at all. I quickly drop two BI because I'm way too loose (35/25) and call too many hands with just a pair or even less. I try to be aggressive pre-flop but these guys just call all the time and often one of them catches the right card to win the pot. After a couple of rounds I decide to tighten up and that seems to work a little better. I do end up loosing $7 after getting sucked out on in a big pot.

Overall not a very succesful 6max introduction, so I plan on reading a bit more first and play a much more conservative and tight style next time I sit at 6max table.
You do get a better feel for your opponents style though. After a few rounds you really see who's playing from all positions, who's never raising, who's folding to pressure etc. On the other hand it's a lot more swingy and you're put in marginal situations more often. It was fun though:)

Shuffle up and deal!

Becoming a better poker player?

2008-08-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

For me, poker is a hobby, it's fun, it's challenging and (like it or not) it's definately addicting.
So, poker is in my head a lot of the time, to be honest a bit more than I'd like it to be, but I'm like an addiction-magnet.

At this point, I'm crushing the very lowest limit (2NL), which of course has no merit at all. Only one stake up (and thus still at the very bottom of poker levels) at the 4NL, I'm breaking even after some 13k hands, which at worst means I have no talent at all and at best may indicate I'm a slow learner. At least, I think that's what it means. Perhaps it's absolutely normal and I should not expect to have improved significantly until having played at least 50k hands. I just have no idea.

Poker is about making the right decisions and, especially online, being able to make these decisions very fast. When making a decision, sometimes knowing the strength of your own hand is enough. More often, it involves being able to estimate what your opponent is likely to have. Sometimes it involves even more: knowing what you opponent thinks you might have and beyond.

A lot of factors are to be taken into account: hand ranges, playing style, betting patterns, table image, outs, people still to act behind you etc. etc. You need to be able to analyse your opponents: what hands do they play and how do they play them? How do they think you play?

There's just a ton of information that needs to be noticed, analysed and remembered so it can be used in future decisions. Now, this is a challenge for one opponent and there's up to 9 opponents at the table. And you might be playing 4 tables at a time................

Can I learn this? Will I be able to get better at it? Do I have the right qualities to become even a mid-stakes or low-stakes winning player? And what are those qualities? An eye for detail? An excellent memory? A lot of experience? Strong statistical and mathematical insight? Patience? Discipline? Stamina? Can you train that stuff? Is becoming a great poker player more difficult than becoming a chess master or is it easier? Can almost anyone become a decent player or will most not even get much better than a total noob?

I'm reading the books here and putting in a lot of hours and thought (for a mere hobby that is), I'm reviewing some of the hands where I made mistakes. I'm watching some video's, practising calculating odds and hand ranges... Will that make me a better player?

Often when I read a hand review or an explanation of hand by a top player or even a mid-stakes player, I'm thinking: how can he think about all that stuff in a couple of seconds and while probably playing at least 3 other tables at the same time?

Well, obviously I have a lot of questions. Maybe I'm just being impatient and I'm overestimating the 'learning' ability of other players and most people don't improve faster than I do. Or maybe I should quit playing multible tables and really focus on one table to improve on all aspects of the game first and then try playing more tables at a time. Or maybe, I should head back to the play money tables and just have fun without the pressure of having to win, but also without any reward or feelings of accomplishment.

So, if anyone out there has the answers: tell me :)

For now, I'll just keep trying...

Goals for September

2008-08-26T06:49:00.000-07:00

I've been hovering at break even at the 4NL tables for over 10,000 hands now so I definately want to improve my results next month. I'll also be playing the 2NL on Pokerstars to build my bankroll there and take a few stabs at the 10NL 6-max tables over at Titan Poker.

So here are my goals for September:

Cash games

PokerStars: 6-tabling the 2NL full-ring tables: 2,000 hands at 30 BB/100 for +$12
PartyPoker: 4-tabling the 4NL full-ring tables: 5,000 hands at 10 BB/100 for +$20
Titan Poker: 2-tabling the 10NL 6-max tables: 1,000 hands at 5 BB/100 for +$5

I have been playing about 5k hands per month uptil now but I definately want to put in a few more hours to get to 8k hands.

Other

Read some articles about playing 6max (I may switch from fr to 6max).
Download and test a free video making tool (I'd like to post a couple of session to get some feedback).
Play at least one live poker session. (I'm really looking forward to that, even though we'll probably end up playing with playmoney or at €0.01-€0.02, which is fine).

Back from a great vacation

2008-08-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

In short: France was sunny, warm, fun and relaxing. I had a great time with my family, spent a lot of time having fun with the boys in the pool and I even got around to read two pokerbooks and watch a lot of poker videos on my Ipod.

Back to playing now and after a month of July, I was eager to do better this month.
So far it's going ok: I played about 3000 hands at the 4NL tables on Partypoker and I'm up $15 there. I also want to build a bankroll on PokerStars so I deposited $15 and after some 1500 hands that's up $12.

Results could have been better: one misclick costed me $4 and I also misread a board (because I was involved in a hand on all 4 tables), thinking I had a straight when I didn't, which cost me another $3. I managed to not tilt though :)

Played a fun hand where I raise preflop with 99 and get one caller. I flop quads, make a halfpot bet to make it look like a cbet and my caller decides to pull a bluff for almost his entire stack on me.

I reviewed some of my sessions and I still make too many donkcalls even though I'm getting better at avoiding those.

In order to play more disciplined I decided to use some chips. I put 3 stacks of 3 chips in front of me: the reds are for bluffs, so I limit myself to 3 bluffs in about 500 hands. The blues are for calling down suspicious bets, like if I have a decent hand like at least TPTK and the villain bets into me or makes a play that doesn't make sense. Calling those hands all the time is what makes me loose money, but folding every time seems a big leak too. Finally, the blacks chips are for (costly) mistakes, so whenever I make a big mistake, I put one chip aside. When all three are gone, the session is over.

I will try this the next couple of sessions and see how it works out, but it seems like a good idea.

I decided to play a few multi-table SNG's as well and I did ok: 5th out of 27, 12th out of 45 and 20 out of 27 doesn't seems all that bad, considering I never play MTT's or SNG's. I might play a few more of them on PokerStars cause it's good practice and I nice change from grinding the cash-tables.

'till next time!

Astafas

May the cards be with you

A difficult decision or not?

2008-07-04T01:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a situation I'm struggling with:

I'm dealt pocket Aces in LP and raise to be called by one villain in MP.
Flop shows a rainbow K, 6, 3 and the villain bets 2/3 of the pot into me.

What could he have?

pocket kings? unlikely because he limped and just called a raise
two pair? unlikely, I don't see him calling a raise with a K6 or 63 out of position.
pocket 66 or pocket 33? these are possible hands that fit his pattern.
a draw? he might have an open ended straight draw or a gutshot draw, but would he bet that?
a bluff? possible, but that would be a very daring play

So, I'm basically thinking he probably has a set or there is a small chance he is bluffing.

I played this hand like a total donk (cause I was tilting) by calling his bets on all streets. I should have laid it down when he bet again on the turn.

Still, I'm wondering what the right play is here.

Folding on the flop was the correct play of course, but wouldn't this be extremely weak? If I start folding top pairs on the flop everytime I get bet into, I feel like like a sitting duck: just bet me and I'll fold.

Looking back on that hand, calling doesn't feel right either. Most likely, I'll be facing another bet on the turn and be in the same spot again, only for more money.

I'm now thinking I should have reraised him on the flop. If he 3bets or even goes all-in, I have an easier laydown, cause I doubt he would take a bluff this far. It would be lost money, but now I did loose even more on later streets. The alternative would be to just call and give up on the turn if the villain bets again.

I definately would like some feedback on this, so feel free to post your thoughts.

The problem hands

2008-07-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

Last night I digged into my holdem manager stats to find out if my lack of results at the 4NL tables is a matter of running bad or playing bad.

Two things were noticable: results per position and my top loosing hands.

Results per position:

early: a little down
middle: a little down
cutoff: a little up
button: big winner
small blind: huge looser
big blind: big winner

So, the first thing to work on is my play from the small blind: I'm playing way too many hands (VPIP of over 40%). So, the next sessions I'll tighten up there and see how that works.

Top loosing hands:

My biggest loosing hands are the so called problem hands: KQo, KJo, QJo, KQs. I'm also loosing big with hands like ATo, KTo etc. It seems I tend to play these hands very often and from almost any position. So, I plan on laying them down a lot more often in EP and MP, especially when facing a raise and just try limping with these hands. I guess I should also play these hands a lot more careful when flopping just a pair.

Overall, my top hands are high pocket pairs, most middle and bottom pairs, suited connectors and a few other hands like ofsuit connectors and suited one-gappers that got lucky.

So two things to focus on the next sessions: tighten up from the small blind and play the 'problem hands' less and more conservative. Hopefully this will help to turn things around.

Sometimes poker is like riding a rollercoaster

2008-07-03T00:08:00.001-07:00

After my last session, where I lost almost 4 buyins (I play $0.02-$0.04 with a $5 buyin), I really hoped to do better this time. The start was looking good as played some tight but aggressive poker and I got up something like $3. Then it hit me again: loosing three big pots in a short time, two of which I got in with the best hand and the other one being up against a flopped set with my flopped two pair. And there it was: down another $13.

The only difference with the big loosing session before was that I felt I was playing at least ok and the cards were just against me. So I kept playing (after taking a 10 min. break to calm down) and slowly I got some back. About an hour later I felted a guy so I got up to -$4.

I was looking to call it a day when I'm dealt pocket kings in later position and I smooth call a raise in EP from a fairly tight player. Now the flop shows a queen and two lows and the initial raiser bets about 2/3 of the pot. A bit much for a c-bet so I figured he might have QQ, AQ or maybe JJ or TT. At that point I was a bit worried he might have QQ and if he did, I would be way behind. The turn is a blank and he bets again, again about 2/3 of the pot. So now I'm pretty confident he has either QQ or AQ. I make a questionable call, but the pot is getting pretty big now and I'm kinda committed. For once, the cards like me and the river brings a much needed king. The rest of the money goes in and I pick up the pot having sucked out 'cause the other guy did have pocket queens.

That brought me to a $1 up and I decide to take another break. That luckbox hand did make a big difference (down $9 or up $1) but after all these suckouts against me the last two sessions, I guess I was due.

After a short break I fired up Titan Poker to play one table of 6-max 10NL. Only played for about half an hour but managed to win a few pots and earn little over $3 so that was nice.

I'm still a bit down because of my previous session, which threw me back big time, but I'm not giving up on poker just yet.

Sayonara!

Worst session ever

2008-07-02T00:23:00.000-07:00

Yup,

yesterday evening was definately my session ever. I won a lot of small pots but managed to loose every single big one. I played like a complete donkey, that much is for sure. The decks were after me too: whenever I flopped a set, nobody had anything, but when I got a big starting hand like AA of JJ, sure enough, some guy flopped a set.

To make things worse I tilted. I kept telling myself I wasn't but I was.

So it seems a habit: I play a couple of solid and winning sessions and then blow it of in one big loosing session. It's probably a blessing I'm going on a vacation soon so I won't be able to play poker for a month.

I'm just so frustrated at this point. If I can't win a this level, what realistic expectation can there be I could win at even higher levels in the future?

Tonight I will play again though but if I keep making these horrible mistakes, I guess I should think about quitting.

DAMN!

Cashing out my original deposits

2008-07-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my winnings at the 2NL tables and a total of just over $200 in bonusses, I did earn enough to cash out my original deposits of $390 and still have a bankroll that is big enough to keep playing at the 4NL tables.

Even though I realize cashing out this early will delay moving up to the 10NL tables, it's just a nice feeling playing poker for free and trying to continue building my bankroll without putting any money of my own into it.

So my bankroll has fallen back from $616 to $227 but none of it is my own money :)

Results for June 2008

2008-07-01T02:27:00.000-07:00

Another month has passed so it's time to recap...

My goals for June were:

Clear the bonus at Partypoker: good, I picked up the $25 bonus
Play at least 5000 hands at 4NL: ok, I played 4,700 hands at 4NL and 230 hands at 10NL
Win $30: bad, I earned a whopping $3.58

After my bad start at the 4NL tables in May, I was eager to do better this month and the first half of the month DID go very well as I was up $21. In the next 5 sessions I lost $21 so I was back to zero. At that point I decided to cut back on the multi-tabling and just played on two tables, which would allow me to make better decisions and actually pay attention to how my opponents are playing. So, my meagre profit for this month is a result of my last two sessions.

Up until now, I have played a total of almost 9,000 hands at 4NL and lost $1 to show for it.

I have been looking back on several specific hands and most big losses were just bad plays. It also seems I'm playing some starting hands such as AJo, KQo, KJo and QJo far too often and far too optimistic.

Statwise, I'm hovering at about VPIP: 24%, PFR: 6%, PFA: 1.4

So, these are heading in the right direction, but I feel I still need to show more aggression and less limping.

No goals for July because I'll be enjoying a much anticipated vacation to France in a couple of days.

I downloaded all episodes of High Stakes to my ipod and will pack my Harrington on Cash games volumes so I can study some more while in France.

Enjoy the game!

Results for May

2008-07-01T01:21:00.002-07:00

(June 6, 2008)

Another month has passed, so it's time to look back...

Goals for May

play at least 2500 hands on 2NL Success, I played almost 2700 hands on 2NL
win at least $20 Succes, picked up $27
get to a BR of $160 Succes, bankroll at $177
avoid getting careless: stay on target!! Success, well, at least at the 2NL
get and read another book (preferably Harrington on cash games) Success, got me a copy of Harrington on Cash 1&2, which I'm currently reading.

Because I reached my goals pretty fast, I moved up to the 4NL during the month, starting at Partypoker so I could pick up a bonus from Party and pokersourceonline.

After about 2500 hands I was down $27 so I was disappointed. I couldn't believe 4NL was that much tougher than 2NL (though there definately is a step up), so I decided to tighten up a bit.
The next 2500 hands I've picked up $40, so I made some good adjustments or I was just in a downswing to begin with. Overall, I've played 5500 hands at 5BB/100.

I already have cleared the $125 pokersourceonline bonus (waiting to receive the money) and I still need 40 partypoints to clear another $25.
After that I'm headed to Titan to clear my deposit bonus there.
So, all things considered I've had a good month, earning $40 and improving my game step by step.

My goals for June

Clear the bonus at Partypoker
Play at least 5000 hands at 4NL
Win $30

'till next time

My first royal flush

2008-07-01T01:21:00.001-07:00

(May 30, 2008)

Yup, yesterday I picked up my first ever Royal Flush!!!

I get Ac Tc dealt and the flop adds the Kc and Jc, so obviously I'm staying in the hand to see a Qc appear on the turn. I only made about $0,40 with it but was exciting anyway.
Hopefully my next one will pay off a bit better :)

Tata

Moving to a higher stake

2008-07-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

(May 28, 2008)

Early this month I finally exceeded the $60 profit target on 2NL, so I decided to move to 5NL on Party Poker and picking up a free bankroll bonus at pokersourceonline.

First few sessions were a disaster as I quickly lost 5 buy-ins. I wasn't sure why that happened though the opposition seemed a little better. So, I looked at all my big loosing hands and quickly found a couple of holes (more like craters) in my game. More aggression, less limping, less hands overall and caution when countered in a hand seemed like the way to go. Even though I got a bit lucky, my last two session were a lot better and I'm gradually heading towards a positive overall result.

I must add that the use of HoldemManager is a great help, as it really shows how opponents play and I'm able to respond to that (better).

So far, I've also picked up almost 100 party points, so 25 more to clear the $125 bonus from pokersourceonline and 100 more to clear the $25 bonus from party poker.

Harrington on cash is arriving soon, so I've got some reading material for the holidays!

In order to quickly pick up those party points I sat down at the 25NL tables with a short stack, planning to fold everything except premium pairs. That was definately a rollercoaster: in the first hand I get pocket queens so I puch all-in and pick up the blinds. Next hand, I pick up pocket kings and push again excpecting to get called of course (I would too). Two guys call and only after two hands I'm at $14 :)

A couple of days later I sit down again and loose $10 in 8 hands :)

Because it looks like I'll be able to clear the bonus playing the 5NL, I won't doing that again, but it sure was exciting.

May the cards be with you!

Results for April

2008-07-01T01:10:00.000-07:00

(April 29, 2008)

Since I won't be playing poker the next few days, it's time to look back on the goals for this month:

Statistics

play 2.500 hands four- or sixtabling at 2NL Success, I played 3758 hands 4- and 5-tabling
win $20 for a ptBB/100 of 20 Succes, made $ 23.88 with 32 BB/100
get to a bankroll of $150 Fail, I'm currently at $ 142 due to a tilt session on 2NL and a short adventure with the other guy cathing his 2-outer on the river, which cost me $ 8.

Quality

stick to a tight aggressive style playing the right odds Success, played some very good sessions with extremely good results but I managed to blow it on one mega-tilt session.
play smaller/unprotected pots more aggressive from position Succes, I'm picking pots like these, but sometimes it's going the wrong. I'm not sure this is +EV at this level.
try to put opponents on hands by the river Success, not really there yet, but I'm regularly putting opponents on the right hands or range of hands.

Overall not a bad month but my one tilt-session really bummed me. I still don't know what happened. I quickly lost some and then started making a few BAD calls in big pots. I went down over $13 in just 144 hands and then I made another mistake though I swore I'd never do that but I went to the 10NL to try and recover my losses.

The plan was to play really tight and wait for that one hand. At first the plan worked and I got up 25 BB but then I got unlucky: it got folded to me and I limped from EP and got raised by the guy OTB (I had AQo)

The flop comes AQ5 rainbow and I check to the raiser (just the two of us in the pot). He bets 2/3 and I call because I'm thinking he has AK, AQ, AJ or middle to high PP and I'm only behind against AA and QQ.

The turn is a blank and I check again, planning to check-raise. Villain bets 1/2 pot and I shove it which he calls. He turns over A5. I'm cheering already when the river comes.... a 5 and he hits his two-outer. I immediately shut down my computer...

So, even though my results aren't that bad at all, I've decided to stick to 2NL one month longer because I really want to get my BR up to $160 before I move to 4NL.

Goals for May

play at least 2500 hands on 2NL
win at least $20
get to a BR of $160
avoid getting careless: stay on target!!
get and read another book (preferably Harrington on cash games)

Reward: move to 4NL on Titan Poker and play SNG/MTT with anything that exceeds a BR of $160.

April going well

2008-07-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

(April 22, 2008)

So far I'm having a good month, having played almost 2200 hands and won $ 22.60 which makes a 48 BB/100. Most of the time I've been 4-tabling and since I lost some when I was 6-tabling yesterday, I'm going to stick to 4 tables.

I'm also checking out some of the training websites such as cardrunners and deucescracked to study a bit more and improve my game. At this time I'm mostly just playing my hands, keeping the pot small when I might be behind and betting out when I feel I have the best hand.

I definately want to try to put opponents on a hand (at least by the river) because I'm pretty sure opponents will be a bit better at the next level.

Hopefully I'll reach my goals for this month by the end of this week so I have time to play some short-handed tables and SNG's to work on my overall game quality and experience.

Right now I have no plans to do MTT's because I feel the potential reward versus the time invested is not +EV at the stakes I'm able to play.

I'll post some more and add a few specific hands next time.

Have fun at the tables!

Results for March / Goals for April

2008-07-01T01:06:00.000-07:00

(April 3, 2008)

Lots of stuff going on these last couple of weeks, some bad, some good!

The 'bad' stuff: our three kids and myself got sick this last week, so we're all caughing and sniffing and running a little fever. Nothing spectacular but no fun at all so let's move on to the good stuff fast:

bought an Ipod classic (with a Texas Hold'em game!) so now I can watch a lot of interesting poker podcasts like high stakes, fulltilt learn it from the pros etc. (and listing to my favorite music too of course)
had four winning poker evenings in a row! I definately feel I am on the right track now
trying to quit smoking (I felt like there's no better time to try when you're sick) and so I haven't smoked a cigarette in SIX days!!

Ok, time to look back on March and see how I did.

The goals were:
Statistics

Fail: play about 30 hours two-tabling, so around 2.500 hands I have played for about 20 hours and even though I was four-tabling most of the time, I played about 1.500 hands, well below the goal so that's a "Failed"
Success: make a profit from playing of $10 (about 7ptBB), which would be a first I won $ 18.76 for a BB/100 of 61 or a ptBB of 31 which is obvioulsy a very nice result.
Fail: clear $10 of the $100 start bonus at Everest because I overestimated the number of hands I would be able to play, I didn't get any further than clearing about $5 of my start up bonus
Success: bankroll of $110 Bankroll on 03/31 was $123.45

Quality

play loose pre-flop, but tight post-flop
do not over-estimate the power of middle and low pairs
do not chase hands without the right odds
do not bluff for big pots

Especially the last 4 or 5 sessions I really stuck to these 'rules' and it helped me to win several BI. I also felt I was playing too passive, only betting hands I was pretty sure were the best in the hand. Now I bet more aggressive, especially post flop where a lot of players seems to call often but bet rarely and I get to pick up quite a few more (smaller) pots this way as well.

Goals for April
Because rewards are important :), I'm moving up to the 5NL again (will have to be on another site though) if I succeed this month.

Statistics

play 2.500 hands four- or sixtabling at 2NL
win $20 for a ptBB/100 of 20
get to a bankroll of $150

Quality

stick to a tight aggressive style playing the right odds
play smaller/unprotected pots more aggressive from position
try to put opponents on hands by the river

I already had a good start yesterday evening. I played 237 hands winning $8.43 so even though my objectives are very ambitious (in terms of ptBB/100) I really feel I should be able to make it.

Cya next time!

First steps on Everest

2008-07-01T01:05:00.000-07:00

(March 11, 2008)

On Monday I got started again. I installed Everest, made a deposit of $100 and I also downloaded Pokertracker 2 to try it out.

So far I'm not all that impressed with Everest: the microstakes tables always have waiting lists (sometimes up to 10 people) and the average number of hands per hour is about 35-40, which seems pretty low to me. On the other hand, I do like having a bit more time to make decisions.
Because I wanted to avoid getting bored, I started playing on 3 full ring 2NL tables. Even though I didn't play all that bad, I lost about $2 playing my first 166 hands. I'm guessing partly because I needed to get used to the new software and tables (which is quite different from PKR because other than the 'knock' for a check, there are no sounds for different moves like betting or all-in).

Yesterday evening things went a lot better: I played 211 hands and won $7.22. Just sticking to solid tight play with very few (semi-)bluffs and folding when I felt I was behind worked pretty well.
I made a big win on pocket deuces that hit full house, but other than that I'm kinda struggling playing pocket pairs. Right now, I'm folding bottom pairs that didn't hit the flop if there are overcards and that seems to work for me. Middle pairs and even top pairs are more difficult: I tend to raise too much with my top pairs, getting no action, and I play middle pairs too passively after the flop: checking or folding them and getting no pots. So, any tips on how to handle pocket pairs would be nice.

I read Everest only allows playing on the 2NL tables for the first 90 days after you initial deposit and since the next level is 10NL I do hope to build my bankroll fast enough to be ready for that. I'm not going to 10NL with $100 or even $150, so I might have to switch again if I don't hit $200 - $250 in 90 days (which doesn't sound very likely).

'till next time...

A fresh start

2008-07-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

(March 4, 2008)

I guess it took a few bad beats to 'beat' some sense into my poker game. I started with a bankroll of $ 40 at PKR, only to see that smelt down to a measly $ 5 due to, well... donkeyness :)
Biggest problem: a lack of discipline!

First of all, when I'm ahead I get careless and stop folding the hands I should fold. Some story yesterday when I was playing at a 10-handed, $ 0.02 - $ 0.04 cash game on PKR
I loose $ 1.50 on one of my first hands, but I kept calm and set out to earn it back with a loose but carefull game. The next few hands I win a couple of times, holding strong hands or playing well from late position.
The next hand I get KK in late position. A couple of guys limp and a short-stacked player in middle position makes a small bet, which I call and the chip leader (with $20 at a $4 table) calls as well.
Out came a rainbow flop and the chip leader bets, the guy in the middle goes all-in (I think with $1) and me and the chip leader call. The turn gives a pair on the board and the chip leader bets $2.
Obviously I'm worried he might have hit a full-house or at least a set, but I'm also thinking he can't have a clue about my pocket kings so I feel the raise is a bit over the top. I call.
Next comes a deuce and the chip leader bets $2 again. So he bets three times in a row and I must admit, I didn't think he'd fire another shot. I called and my two pairs held up against the chip leader for the side pot. The guy in middle position did flop a set and took the main (but smaller) pot.

So I'm up $3.5 and I did it again: first playing pocket 8's instead of just folding them after the flop and then chasing a straight draw.
I end up with a tiny $0.29.
So I'm thinking about sticking a 'SHOULD YOU FOLD? on my screen.

I definately need a fresh start...

Position, position, position

2007-12-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

Because I was definately playing a bit better the last couple of weeks, making fewer moronic mistakes, I decided to try and focus on another thing all these poker experts keep talking about: position.

So when I sat down at my table last Wednessday evening, I decided to fold anything less than top pair in early position but to play every hand (except total garbage like 8-2 offsuit) in late position and play it aggressively.

Might aswell just have been a very lucky day for me but I was able to pick up $15 in just two hours. In the end I was playing and winning nearly every hand in late position.
Naturally, it did help a lot to win a few big pots with a showdown, but I really felt how aggression with a good timing can win you pots, good hands or not.

Can't wait to see if it'll work more than once...

A second attempt

2007-12-07T07:15:00.000-08:00

After loosing another $14 in the next two weeks (I'm playing about 12 hours per week), I definately got the feeling I was doing something wrong. Somehow, I was sure my opponents were bluffing all the time (they weren't) and my hands would turn out to be best (they didn't).
Big pots were a problem too: no matter the odds, ME WANTS THAT POT.

So, I took a piece of paper and wrote down a few rules:

don't go all-in unless you have the nuts
stick to the standard handselecting rules (no more low pairs UTG)
only assume an opponent MIGHT be bluffing if you have seen him do it before

In short: play tighter instead of like a donk!

And here's another tip: don't call all-in with KQ.

I finished november break-even...

In the beginning

2007-12-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

Poker seems to have become very popular these days, so I got interested in finding out why. Because I had never ever played the game before - yup a real noob - I thought it might be fun to keep a log of my journey.

So here we are, my first post on my brand new poker blog.

To get things started, I created an account on PKR (http://www.pkr.com/), a rather new kid on the block with nice 3d graphics, downloaded the client and made a first deposit of $40.
Since I am destined for to become a world famous pokerstar, you might want to write this down: my career started at October first, 2007.

Obviously, one should act with caution and humility, so I figured the microstakes table would be step 1 and I took my chips to the $0.02-$0.04 No Limit cash tables. I quickly learned to rules of the game, read a few tips and pointers and took off...

... making my first profit of $0.93. Hey, this is fun and easy!

I finished october with a loss of $6.64, including a bad beat of $-10,29 and I only had played 1 table at a time.

Hmmmm, maybe I should read a bit more.