Steamrolling 6max

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

It's been a while

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

When you're not feeling well...

... 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!