After the epic failing of last week, I decided to take a couple of nights this week and seriously sit down and play some poker. On Wednesday and Thursday night, I fired up 9-12 tables and tried to get some quality sessions in to bring back my confidence. Both nights did not go as planned in that I did not play good poker at all and had really swongy sessions. Luckily, both sessions ended in the black but only because I was able to come up with a big hand just as I decided to shut it down for the night. I really hope I can pick up my game soon, Id like to get back to beating 100NL comfortably again since I know I can do it if I have my head on straight and I dont spew. Here are a couple of things I noticed about my play during the sessions:
1. When it comes to cash games, I can handle 9 tables, but 12 may be a few too many. Since I have a mac, and dont know of any scripts that auto hit time for me, there are times when 12 tables gets a little too much for me. When playing 12 tables, I cant really take an extended look at a hand for too long until 2-4 other tables need attention. I'm sure practice and familiarity will help me increase the number of tables, but at this point, I dont think I'm ready.
2. As good as I think I am, I am still constantly making TERRIBLE plays. Even though I ended with a net profit in my sessions, I lost probably over 300 dollars in potential profit by making some terrible plays. I really need to watch myself more carefully because I am making plays that even below average players dont make. For example, I'll 4bet QQ, get called and cant get away when a K flops, when I know he has me beat. Its hands like these, the ones where I say in my head that Im beat, but still click the call/bet button anyway that just kill me.
3. I am a bad table selector. When I have the PokerTableRatings buddy list running and I can find donks at a bunch of tables, my sessions are much more profitable when no one on the list is online. When I dont have a mark (a donk from my buddy list), I tend to not stand up from a table until it breaks, no matter how tough it turns out to be. Although I do some rudimentary table selection (looking at avg. pot and players in the pot) I really should do more to table select better.
I'm sure there are more things to cover, but its Sunday aka poker day so Ima be firing up some tourneys and some cash to hopefully make up all the money I lost last weekend.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Roller Coaster Weekend
So since I last blogged, a lot of poker has been played and alot has gone down. When I posted last week, I was at about $5300, psyched about my new set up and looking forward to increasing my hourly rate by including more tables.
Initially all was going well, I played a couple of sessions and won money in pretty much all of them, culminating in a short but sweet session on Saturday morning in which I was able to pick up 3 buy ins in less than an hour. By Saturday afternoon, my roll stood at a very healthy 6053. Unfortunately, things only get worse from there.
Saturday afternoon, my friends and I went back to Seabrook to see if our live poker streak could live on. Good news: IT DID! Bad news: Not by me. Ferocious Kitty (check the blog here) ended up chopping at the final table for 500 smackaroos. Congrats again kitty! I, on the other hand, didnt have a great day at Seabrook. I played the Saturday evening tourney ($100 and 6k starting stacks) and chipped up early but then went very card dead for the longest time and ended up getting it in with my QQ vs AK, losing the race. I'm pretty happy with my play overall and was just unlucky to not pick up cards for an extended period of time.
I thought my luck would turn around when early in a $60 SnG I shoved over a MP raiser with AQo (start with 100/100 blinds with 3k starting stacks 10 min levels, horrible I know) and got snapped off by AK. I binked a Q on the flop and doubled. I then proceeded to dominate the table running my stack from around 5500 to 8700 in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, the table was super passive and no one was getting knocked out. I eventually got it in BvB with AK vs KJ with 7 left against a guy with 3k. Flop AQ6r, turn 10 (obv) and riv blanked. The two hands later I shove over a raiser with my JJ and get called by QQ and Im gone. From 1st to out in 3 hands.
I then donked off 40 more in let it ride, fun game which I usually run good at but not Saturday.
On Sunday, I was busy in the afternoon but in the evening I decided to grind some tourneys with my friends. Played a couple of 45 mans and satts and nothing really materialized. I lost about 200 in tourney buy ins, no biggie. I was all set to go home at 1030 and get a nice rest for the week to come. But noooooo, as I was about to go to bed I thought it would be smart to check how many ironman points I had earned that day. I wanted 100, I only had 84 so I fired up PokerTableRatings to see which donks were online. I noticed one sitting at 2/4 HU. I figured that I was running hot and that I knew I could beat the donk. Eventually, he stood up and there was a random opponent sitting there alone. I then made the very stupid decision to play him anyway. I was quickly down 120 bucks when a double barrel bluff failed and I quit him after 15 or so minutes. Now my roll was at just above 57oo and I did not like that one bit so I fired up a 1/2 HU table where I lose a race with AK vs 99 all in pre, so I am down another 200. I am now desperate to get back the money I had lost and opened another 2/4 HU table where I placed a hand in which I turned 2nd nut flush, but couldnt get away when the board paired on the river (pretty ugly hand on my part). After all the dust had cleared I had lost almost 750 dollars in one night after trying to just get 15 #%#@-ing ironman points.
Ugh rough ending to a week with potential. Here is the graph. YUCK
Initially all was going well, I played a couple of sessions and won money in pretty much all of them, culminating in a short but sweet session on Saturday morning in which I was able to pick up 3 buy ins in less than an hour. By Saturday afternoon, my roll stood at a very healthy 6053. Unfortunately, things only get worse from there.
Saturday afternoon, my friends and I went back to Seabrook to see if our live poker streak could live on. Good news: IT DID! Bad news: Not by me. Ferocious Kitty (check the blog here) ended up chopping at the final table for 500 smackaroos. Congrats again kitty! I, on the other hand, didnt have a great day at Seabrook. I played the Saturday evening tourney ($100 and 6k starting stacks) and chipped up early but then went very card dead for the longest time and ended up getting it in with my QQ vs AK, losing the race. I'm pretty happy with my play overall and was just unlucky to not pick up cards for an extended period of time.
I thought my luck would turn around when early in a $60 SnG I shoved over a MP raiser with AQo (start with 100/100 blinds with 3k starting stacks 10 min levels, horrible I know) and got snapped off by AK. I binked a Q on the flop and doubled. I then proceeded to dominate the table running my stack from around 5500 to 8700 in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, the table was super passive and no one was getting knocked out. I eventually got it in BvB with AK vs KJ with 7 left against a guy with 3k. Flop AQ6r, turn 10 (obv) and riv blanked. The two hands later I shove over a raiser with my JJ and get called by QQ and Im gone. From 1st to out in 3 hands.
I then donked off 40 more in let it ride, fun game which I usually run good at but not Saturday.
On Sunday, I was busy in the afternoon but in the evening I decided to grind some tourneys with my friends. Played a couple of 45 mans and satts and nothing really materialized. I lost about 200 in tourney buy ins, no biggie. I was all set to go home at 1030 and get a nice rest for the week to come. But noooooo, as I was about to go to bed I thought it would be smart to check how many ironman points I had earned that day. I wanted 100, I only had 84 so I fired up PokerTableRatings to see which donks were online. I noticed one sitting at 2/4 HU. I figured that I was running hot and that I knew I could beat the donk. Eventually, he stood up and there was a random opponent sitting there alone. I then made the very stupid decision to play him anyway. I was quickly down 120 bucks when a double barrel bluff failed and I quit him after 15 or so minutes. Now my roll was at just above 57oo and I did not like that one bit so I fired up a 1/2 HU table where I lose a race with AK vs 99 all in pre, so I am down another 200. I am now desperate to get back the money I had lost and opened another 2/4 HU table where I placed a hand in which I turned 2nd nut flush, but couldnt get away when the board paired on the river (pretty ugly hand on my part). After all the dust had cleared I had lost almost 750 dollars in one night after trying to just get 15 #%#@-ing ironman points.
Ugh rough ending to a week with potential. Here is the graph. YUCK
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
My New Set Up
So not much has happened here in terms of poker. I played a little, won a couple buy ins but havent had the motivation to log in the hours I should.
I did, however, have the time to put together my new poker set up. Its nothing special but my monitor is now up and running. I had to fiddle around with (edit: break) an old desk we had in the basement. Heres a little snapshot. (The picture is actually a mirror image of my set up, i have my monitor on the right and the laptop on the left, and theres a TV in the background).
Hopefully double the monitors equals double the monies!!!
I did, however, have the time to put together my new poker set up. Its nothing special but my monitor is now up and running. I had to fiddle around with (edit: break) an old desk we had in the basement. Heres a little snapshot. (The picture is actually a mirror image of my set up, i have my monitor on the right and the laptop on the left, and theres a TV in the background).
Hopefully double the monitors equals double the monies!!!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Random Poker Musings
So, as promised yesterday, I thought Id share some thoughts on some random poker things Ive been thinking about.
Poker Table Ratings- PokerTableRatings.com is a website that tracks hands on cash games across many of the major poker sites. I love using it to not only see how good or bad my opponents are, but to see some of the biggest donks at certain limits. By far, my favorite feature of the site is the Buddy List (which is actually down now due to FTP's updates). The Buddy List is just like that of the AIM variety; it tells you when youre friends are online. In this case however, your friends are not your chums, but the donks that you love playing against. Before logging on to FTP I always check my buddy list to see if any of my favorite ATMs are online. If they are, I immediately join their table and let the money roll in. If you dont have a program like SpadeEye, PokerTableRatings' Buddy List is a great tool.
WSOP ME Drama- So as you may or may not have heard, people were being shut out of the Main Event because it was full. Apparently the issue arose when many people chose to register for day 1D, the final starting day, and assumed that since there has never been a problem before, they could just walk up to the registration booth minutes before the start and get in OK. Seemingly hundreds of people had the same thought process and showed up at 1130 for the noon start time. The WSOP staff only had enough tables set up for 3000 players, and with many players preregistering, there would be some people left in the cold. A few high profile players were not able to play in the Main Event due to the table shortage, including TJ Cloutier, Ted Forrest and even Patrik Antonius. Understandably, those shut out were outraged. Some had planned for months to come to Vegas to play in the ME and then were told they would not be allowed in.
I for one have no sympathy for those who missed out on the ME. It was well known that there were 3 other starting days for the ME, not only that, but there has been preregistration for almost a year now. Furthermore, it was known that days could be sold out and that players should plan accordingly. The players that were shut out were kinda caught off guard, but their situation was completely avoidable.
FTP Update - When I originally was going to write about the update I was going to berate full tilt for doing such a crappy job. But, after the crappiness was somewhat diminished with today's update, I must say that the update is net positive. I love the hand replayer, the 7 game mix and the supposed performance enhancing software. On the other hand, I lost my card mods, Copilot is confused by some new stuff (I dont use it much now tho) and the new small cards are REALLY hard to read when multitabling. Sure the #s are big but I cant see the suit! Im confident these things will be fixed and FTP will be back to their ass kicking ways.
Th-th-th-thats all folks
Good luck everyone!
Poker Table Ratings- PokerTableRatings.com is a website that tracks hands on cash games across many of the major poker sites. I love using it to not only see how good or bad my opponents are, but to see some of the biggest donks at certain limits. By far, my favorite feature of the site is the Buddy List (which is actually down now due to FTP's updates). The Buddy List is just like that of the AIM variety; it tells you when youre friends are online. In this case however, your friends are not your chums, but the donks that you love playing against. Before logging on to FTP I always check my buddy list to see if any of my favorite ATMs are online. If they are, I immediately join their table and let the money roll in. If you dont have a program like SpadeEye, PokerTableRatings' Buddy List is a great tool.
WSOP ME Drama- So as you may or may not have heard, people were being shut out of the Main Event because it was full. Apparently the issue arose when many people chose to register for day 1D, the final starting day, and assumed that since there has never been a problem before, they could just walk up to the registration booth minutes before the start and get in OK. Seemingly hundreds of people had the same thought process and showed up at 1130 for the noon start time. The WSOP staff only had enough tables set up for 3000 players, and with many players preregistering, there would be some people left in the cold. A few high profile players were not able to play in the Main Event due to the table shortage, including TJ Cloutier, Ted Forrest and even Patrik Antonius. Understandably, those shut out were outraged. Some had planned for months to come to Vegas to play in the ME and then were told they would not be allowed in.
I for one have no sympathy for those who missed out on the ME. It was well known that there were 3 other starting days for the ME, not only that, but there has been preregistration for almost a year now. Furthermore, it was known that days could be sold out and that players should plan accordingly. The players that were shut out were kinda caught off guard, but their situation was completely avoidable.
FTP Update - When I originally was going to write about the update I was going to berate full tilt for doing such a crappy job. But, after the crappiness was somewhat diminished with today's update, I must say that the update is net positive. I love the hand replayer, the 7 game mix and the supposed performance enhancing software. On the other hand, I lost my card mods, Copilot is confused by some new stuff (I dont use it much now tho) and the new small cards are REALLY hard to read when multitabling. Sure the #s are big but I cant see the suit! Im confident these things will be fixed and FTP will be back to their ass kicking ways.
Th-th-th-thats all folks
Good luck everyone!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Upswings FTW
After the gf left on Sunday night, I wasnt really in the mood to play until Monday evening. I utilized my newest tool (PokerTableRankings.com's buddy list feature, more on that in a future post) and found some potentially juicy games. I played 6max on 7-8 tables (still no new monitor, not really sure where to set it up), signed up for the waiting lists on some heads up tables and had what I thought was a decent session. I knew I wasnt up alot, but maybe a buy in or so. Nope, when I checked my session I was down 7 dollars, whoops. I stopped when I did because of a pretty big migraine I had coming on; Im a frequent migraine sufferer and I could tell this one would be bad.The session lasted over an hour and all the while I was still on the waiting list of one of the HU games. As I was quitting the 6max games due to my headache, the HU table opened up and I was able to play the opponent I was waiting for. I had played this guy a bunch at 6max 50NL and he definitely was not good. He wasnt a superdonk that basically gives away his money, but he was a fairly straightforward player who wasnt too tricky and was easy to read. I decided to try to play through the pain and get in some HU poker action. What a very good decision it turned out to be...
My headache had turned into a full blown migraine and I was just trying to keep my mind off the pain and focus on the poker. Here are some of the highlights:
Nice flop eh: Obviously I flop gin and cooler this guy, but I think I missed alot of value on the river. If hes calling 67, hes probably calling more, even a shove. I really hate my river bet looking back on it.
Mmmm, thin value: I played this hand kinda tricky. At least pre and post flop. He had been 3betting pretty wide, but not maniacally. When I just call the 3bet and call the flop bet, I could have ALOT of hands. When my opponent leads the turn, I put him squarely on a worse ace and decided I wanted to get my money in here however I could (I was praying he didnt have AK). My plan worked and I got his money when he shows up with a barely worse kicker. Weeeeeee!
Nicer flop, eh: I had developed a read on this guy that he would bet the flop when first to act if he had a hand he liked. Knowing this, I wanted to build a pot to get his monies in. The turn is a bit scary since sets and some two pair hands boated up but I wasnt slowing down. I bet enough on the turn to allow for a little less than pot sized bet on the river which he gladly calls with 2nd pair.
Blech: I pick up 10s and get 3bet, since he had been doing this pretty wide, I four bet him and he flats. Against some players, this move is the absolute top of their range, but against this guy I knew he could be looking me up with worse (A9s+, A10+, 8s+). The flop isnt great but I wanted to end the hand there, he shoves and Im pretty much committed, considering he could have some overcards+FD hands that I still have equity against. He flips up KQ and I lose. IMO, his flat of my 4bet is pretty terrible. a) hes OOP b) I hadnt 4 bet much so I can only assume my perceived range is like 9s+, AJ+. A range that crushes his, especially since I dominate KQ often. Whatevs, moving on...
WP sir: This hand is kinda a cooler, but he played the hand really well in my opinion. He disguised the strength of his hand with the flat of my 3bet and even his raise on the flop doesnt mean he has me beat. I was a bit unlucky to have such a pretty board come out for my hand, but regardless, he played it well.
Poker is easy when you have aces: Pretty standard, value bet the crap out of my aces.
He valuetowns himself: Another pretty standard hand. I dont think my hand is strong enough to raise on the turn or the river but I am definitely calling. I knew he had a hand he liked somewhat, but I had a pretty good kicker so I thought TPGK would be good enough to merit a call.
The backbreaker: I have been calling raises OOP with smallish pairs HU trying to flop sets recently. I dont flat much with anything else (sometimes SC's) so this is kinda exploitable, I gotta fix that leak. I slowplay my set and get the perfect turn card for his hand. His two pair cant beat my 3 of a kind and I take down a sizable pot. He got pretty pissed after this one since he said it always seemed like whenever he had a good hand, I had a better one (definitely somewhat true). He played a few more hands then quit me. I ended up taking almost 500 clams from this guy. Definitely good medicine for a splitting headache.
I played a little yesterday, trying to replicate my HU success but I ended the day down some (less than a buy in).
Today, I logged in to see there was a new software update. This always excites me since there are sometimes a couple of drastic changes that dramatically change full tilt (tourney dollars, shootouts, late regging etc). I opened two tables of .5/1 (after trying out the 7 game mix for a bit) and there are definitely some big changes (more on that later) but was even happier to see that I sat down at a gold mine. In my experiment, I was able to win more than 2 buy ins. I like running good.
After a great couple of days, this is where I'm at:
Wow, 5k. Thats a lot of monies. It really shows how far Ive come. Wow.
Post coming soon discussing FTP changes, WSOP ME fiascoes and PokerTableRatings.
Good Luck everyone!!
My headache had turned into a full blown migraine and I was just trying to keep my mind off the pain and focus on the poker. Here are some of the highlights:
Nice flop eh: Obviously I flop gin and cooler this guy, but I think I missed alot of value on the river. If hes calling 67, hes probably calling more, even a shove. I really hate my river bet looking back on it.
Mmmm, thin value: I played this hand kinda tricky. At least pre and post flop. He had been 3betting pretty wide, but not maniacally. When I just call the 3bet and call the flop bet, I could have ALOT of hands. When my opponent leads the turn, I put him squarely on a worse ace and decided I wanted to get my money in here however I could (I was praying he didnt have AK). My plan worked and I got his money when he shows up with a barely worse kicker. Weeeeeee!
Nicer flop, eh: I had developed a read on this guy that he would bet the flop when first to act if he had a hand he liked. Knowing this, I wanted to build a pot to get his monies in. The turn is a bit scary since sets and some two pair hands boated up but I wasnt slowing down. I bet enough on the turn to allow for a little less than pot sized bet on the river which he gladly calls with 2nd pair.
Blech: I pick up 10s and get 3bet, since he had been doing this pretty wide, I four bet him and he flats. Against some players, this move is the absolute top of their range, but against this guy I knew he could be looking me up with worse (A9s+, A10+, 8s+). The flop isnt great but I wanted to end the hand there, he shoves and Im pretty much committed, considering he could have some overcards+FD hands that I still have equity against. He flips up KQ and I lose. IMO, his flat of my 4bet is pretty terrible. a) hes OOP b) I hadnt 4 bet much so I can only assume my perceived range is like 9s+, AJ+. A range that crushes his, especially since I dominate KQ often. Whatevs, moving on...
WP sir: This hand is kinda a cooler, but he played the hand really well in my opinion. He disguised the strength of his hand with the flat of my 3bet and even his raise on the flop doesnt mean he has me beat. I was a bit unlucky to have such a pretty board come out for my hand, but regardless, he played it well.
Poker is easy when you have aces: Pretty standard, value bet the crap out of my aces.
He valuetowns himself: Another pretty standard hand. I dont think my hand is strong enough to raise on the turn or the river but I am definitely calling. I knew he had a hand he liked somewhat, but I had a pretty good kicker so I thought TPGK would be good enough to merit a call.
The backbreaker: I have been calling raises OOP with smallish pairs HU trying to flop sets recently. I dont flat much with anything else (sometimes SC's) so this is kinda exploitable, I gotta fix that leak. I slowplay my set and get the perfect turn card for his hand. His two pair cant beat my 3 of a kind and I take down a sizable pot. He got pretty pissed after this one since he said it always seemed like whenever he had a good hand, I had a better one (definitely somewhat true). He played a few more hands then quit me. I ended up taking almost 500 clams from this guy. Definitely good medicine for a splitting headache.
I played a little yesterday, trying to replicate my HU success but I ended the day down some (less than a buy in).
Today, I logged in to see there was a new software update. This always excites me since there are sometimes a couple of drastic changes that dramatically change full tilt (tourney dollars, shootouts, late regging etc). I opened two tables of .5/1 (after trying out the 7 game mix for a bit) and there are definitely some big changes (more on that later) but was even happier to see that I sat down at a gold mine. In my experiment, I was able to win more than 2 buy ins. I like running good.
After a great couple of days, this is where I'm at:
Wow, 5k. Thats a lot of monies. It really shows how far Ive come. Wow.
Post coming soon discussing FTP changes, WSOP ME fiascoes and PokerTableRatings.
Good Luck everyone!!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Long time no blog
It's been a while since I have made a post, but that is mainly because its been a while since I have put in a serious session online. The gf is in town so no pokers for me, and just before that I was getting accustomed to my new job at a local summer camp which meant much less poker.
In a couple days, I'm going to set up my monitor and get back to multitabling 100NL. I hope this break doesnt hurt my skilllllllz, but I think I should be fine.
One last thing, check out Ferocious Kitty's blog, he's got some great info up on his forays into low stakes cash and MTTs. He's looking for some feedback on a couple of interesting posts he's put up, give it a look see.
Good luck everyone!
In a couple days, I'm going to set up my monitor and get back to multitabling 100NL. I hope this break doesnt hurt my skilllllllz, but I think I should be fine.
One last thing, check out Ferocious Kitty's blog, he's got some great info up on his forays into low stakes cash and MTTs. He's looking for some feedback on a couple of interesting posts he's put up, give it a look see.
Good luck everyone!
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