Sigh

Managed to donk off another couple buyins. Flopped a set against KK, then got so excited that I overcalled two pushes on AK4Q board. JT. Dammit. (KK is my biggest loser currently. I need to learn to fold big pairs. I thought I was getting better. Nope.) JJ on T43 two suits. He pushes. That smells like semibluff. Call. Fours up. Frown. Add some general shenanigans, and I'm down $150 over the last couple days. That's kind of okay, because my upswing outlasted that, but it's still stupid, because I'm just making stupid mistakes and throwing money away. Variance doesn't help, but I should be able to get away from hands that I'm clearly beaten on.

I need to work on folding hands that were ahead on the flop that are behind on the river, particularly to straights.

I need to hammer out basic preflop strategy (e.g. what I raise with in what position, and what I limp with, then how to adjust it) instead of more or less winging it.

I need to raise more preflop.

I need to learn to extract value from my premium hands. Many times I raise 4x with (good hand X) and make a continuation bet to have people fold. That's good because it lets me get away with T high, but I need to figure out a way to get more out of them. This also applies to sets; check/calling and raising the river is probably not optimal.

I need to stop playing when I'm in a state that I can't play winning poker in.

I am happy that I'm more aggressive postflop, and that my preflop aggression is going up.

I am happy that I've figured out what game I want to master, and that I have a plan for moving up. (6 max 25 NL; starting with $625. At $1250, take $250 to 50 NL to see what happens.)

I am happy that I have gotten much better at restealing post-flop.

I'm happy that I'm scouring my game for leaks.

I'm happy that I've incorporated PAHUD into my play.

I'm going to spend at least 25k hands at this level.* I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it before I move up. It's not really losing the money that irritates me; money is nice and all, but a) I'm still ahead and b) I'm not withdrawing anything anyway. It's just a way to keep score, and governs when I can move up to 50.

On Sunday, I wanted to be at 50 by Christmas. Now, I think I'll be lucky to be there by summer. That's what irritates me the most.

That felt healthy.

Sleep now.

And the other shoe drops

I'm not superstitious, but after the weekend I knew I was running hot (12.2bb/100 over 2200 hands) and waiting for the inevitable downswing.

Rammed into that tonight. Highlights include Kings against trips, eights vs nines as overpair, flopped straight getting outturned, etc. I managed to not go broke in the first two cases, but I was distracted on other tables with the straight and thought he could only split or beat me with T5, plus I was redrawing to a boat. Turns out no; I'm an idiot and T9 will do nicely on 46787 board.

I hate throwing away pots like that. Getting outplayed is one thing, but that was just stupid, and there isn't really any excuse.

Sigh.

Probably random posts about hands so on until I hit 10k hands at NL 25, wherein there'll be a stat post. What's considered a good/acceptable bb/100 in general? What about at microstakes?

Read Ace on the River over the last couple days. Go read it now. 100% not kidding. Go out, buy it, and read it. It's phenomenal.

I also finally got around to seeing Rounders, which was entertaining. I wonder if I would've gone broke with nines full.

I'm also running red hot at 25 NL with some quite positive variance, which is nice. I'm going to clear the $50 deposit bonus soon, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Counting it as winnings towards the roll for 50 NL seems like cheating, but I feel quite insured against a rainy day. Perhaps I'll use it to take a shot at 50.

This post was mostly written because of Ace on the River. Read it. It's a thousand FPP at Stars, so if you're vacillating about the cost, go get it.

On that note, I read somewhat compulsively, especially about my hobbies. Since poker is what I'm very focused on currently, anyone have recommendations for a NL player who's read WLLH, ToP, Harrington I&II, Ace on the River, and Caro's Book of Tells?

I'm thinking Sklansky's NL book. (And yeah, I need to reread ToP again.)

25 NL

I've got the roll to play 6 max 25 NL, so I've begun four-tabling it. The goal is to move up to 50 after I hit $1250 (from $625)

This is pretty much godawful from start to finish. I misplayed every street and basically donked a buyin. The only thing that cheers me up is that eventually I'll get to do it to someone else.

Then...

POKERSTARS GAME #6779637826: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.10/$0.25) - 2006/10/26 - 17:58:02 (ET)
Table 'Volans' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: WolfOnTheFol ($30.35 in chips)
Seat 2: eggowar ($26.45 in chips)
Seat 3: FleaVan ($16.40 in chips)
Seat 4: Carlito0010 ($22.90 in chips)
Seat 5: Sniper13013 ($6.75 in chips)
Seat 6: SanMiguel99 ($32.65 in chips)
Sniper13013: posts small blind $0.10
SanMiguel99: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WolfOnTheFol [Qh Qd]
WolfOnTheFol: raises $0.50 to $0.75
eggowar: raises $1.50 to $2.25
FleaVan: folds
Carlito0010: folds
Sniper13013: folds
SanMiguel99: folds
WolfOnTheFol: calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [4d 9h 6c]
WolfOnTheFol: bets $3.50
eggowar: raises $3.50 to $7
WolfOnTheFol: folds
eggowar collected $11.30 from pot
eggowar: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $11.85 | Rake $0.55
Board [4d 9h 6c]
Seat 1: WolfOnTheFol folded on the Flop
Seat 2: eggowar collected ($11.30)
Seat 3: FleaVan folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Carlito0010 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Sniper13013 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: SanMiguel99 (big blind) folded before Flop

This was basically me trying to avoid making the same mistake twice, but after talking it over with Shads the conclusion was that I can actually push here; there's no flush draw to worry about and the range of hands I can be annihilating is significantly higher than what I'm drawing almost dead to.

I've also rammed AQ into AK twice in the last 24 hours. AQ is tricky; one of the hands I limped it from the small blind and probably deserved what I got, but the other time...

POKERSTARS GAME #6784014086: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.10/$0.25) - 2006/10/26 - 23:23:09 (ET)
Table 'Eridanus II' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: quadflop ($32.45 in chips)
Seat 3: linda53 ($12.05 in chips)
Seat 5: WolfOnTheFol ($23.65 in chips)
Seat 6: patoman ($41.60 in chips)
patoman: posts small blind $0.10
quadflop: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WolfOnTheFol [Qc Ad]
linda53: raises $0.50 to $0.75
WolfOnTheFol: calls $0.75
patoman: folds
quadflop: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ks 3s Ah]
linda53: bets $0.75
WolfOnTheFol: calls $0.75
*** TURN *** [Ks 3s Ah] [5d]
linda53: bets $1.25
WolfOnTheFol: calls $1.25
*** RIVER *** [Ks 3s Ah 5d] [6d]
linda53: checks
WolfOnTheFol: bets $3.50
linda53: calls $3.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WolfOnTheFol: shows [Qc Ad] (a pair of Aces)
linda53: shows [Kh As] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
linda53 collected $12.25 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $12.85 | Rake $0.60
Board [Ks 3s Ah 5d 6d]
Seat 1: quadflop (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: linda53 showed [Kh As] and won ($12.25) with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 5: WolfOnTheFol (button) showed [Qc Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: patoman (small blind) folded before Flop


I need to learn that sometimes LAG maniacs actually have the hand they're representing.

But sometimes they have seven high.

That was an interesting session.

I'm trying to avoid losing too much money to value bets on the river while not losing even more money by laying down the best hand. There will probably be hands to follow.

I'm overall happy with how I'm playing; aside from that KK hand I havn't done anything glaringly stupid.

It's possible there will be a forthcoming post regarding AQ. This depends on if I keep losing money with it.

that is all.

Mostly just a hand

Gave a 10+1 180 man a shot; didn't particularly care for it compared to SNGs; I prefer to play more tournaments/hour than play MTTs. Bubbled two more SNGs, and got mauled in another one with A8 on 865; reraised the dude's continuation bet and he turned out to be raising 65 UTG.

Mostly, though, it was this hand from the MTT I was happiest with tonight:

PokerStars Game #6662452461: Tournament #33867626, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2006/10/17 - 00:11:03 (ET)
Table '33867626 19' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: scottyno (985 in chips)
Seat 2: Osyrus1000 (1240 in chips)
Seat 3: CoLlEcToRzZ (1750 in chips)
Seat 4: WolfOnTheFol (2360 in chips)
Seat 5: johnstaton (2710 in chips)
Seat 6: Juskimo (2005 in chips)
Seat 7: Quaxxx (1530 in chips)
Seat 9: ArounderC (1975 in chips)
Osyrus1000: posts small blind 25
CoLlEcToRzZ: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WolfOnTheFol [9s 8s]
WolfOnTheFol: calls 50

Eh...the table was quiet and I'm looking to get to monster hands.

johnstaton has timed out
johnstaton: folds
johnstaton is sitting out
Juskimo: folds
Quaxxx: folds
johnstaton has returned
ArounderC: raises 250 to 300
scottyno: folds
Osyrus1000: folds
CoLlEcToRzZ: folds

Enter thinking mode: 6 BBs to one limper is really high. He's tight enough that I think this is a legitimate hand, but I don't think it wants a call; it feels like TT or JJ to me. I see enough people running the limp-reraise with aces that I might be able to get away with it here...

WolfOnTheFol: raises 600 to 900
ArounderC said, "limp in with AA or KK did ya"

Oh man, it's like he's psychic.

ArounderC: folds
WolfOnTheFol collected 675 from pot


That was the first big hand I thought to the third level and applied it correctly, and I'm quite pleased with it.

Er..

I realized I forgot to actually mention the preliminary SNG numbers.

23 entered, 6 victories, 2 first loser, 2 second loser. I'd have ROI etc, but I'd need to manually input some information into PT and it's late. (Actually, damn, it's early.)

33 VPIP, 21 PFR, AF 2.

I wish I could see how many times I've gone out on the bubble or in fifth, because I think it'd be valuable information. Can I get that from PT?

Most of the time I bust, it involves either me being short and pushing and someone waking up with a better hand, or being in a spot where I have odds to make a draw, and I'm short enough that I think it's my best spot. (I need more experience to decide when I'm right about that kind of thing, or at least a rough number of BB or chips for the early levels) Or all the money goes in when I'm ahead and they draw out.

Mostly it's the third one. That pleases me.

Very Preliminary Numbers and Thoughts

Right now I'm happy with three SNGs at a time. I think I can play four competently, but I just had a session where I was playing three and I was quite happy with how it went - I was able to keep an eye on every table and had some sort of sense of the people I needed to watch out for. When I play four, I feel more rushed. I did find a configuration for the screen size that I liked, so I'll probably try four in the future, but I'm happy with three for now. Perhaps I'll add a fourth table in the form of a 180 man sng.

Summary of the last few days:

I played in the PTips tournament. I busted just before the FT on an ill-advised push with an underpair. (I raised UTG with 55, BB calls. Flop comes K89, he bets, and I raise AI. BB calls with KJ. Whoops.) Gerrit did say that he gave significant weight to the fact that I pushed instantly, which indicated that I'd made up my mind before the flop. I was playing pretty aggressively, and while he was thinking about his bet I decided I'd raise if he bet small. He did and I did, and he called and I busted. My thought process was something along the lines of him having an ace or middle/bottom pair (Now that I think about it, I can't see any pair holding he can concievably have that he'd lay down; A8 is the only one.) meant that he'd bet to see where he was at, and he'd fold to my raise.

I talked to Shads about it, and he pointed out that I was playing pretty LAG and wouldn't have a lot of table respect, and that when someone calls an UTG raise and bets, they're probably not doing it just for fun. That logic is better than what went through my head, and wasn't something I'd considered. I'm irritated that I hadn't, but now I will, so...good beats I guess.

I've been playing a pretty LAG style in the SNGs. I'm doing a lot of raising and playing a lot of pots. Most people at the 10+1s seem pretty passive, and I usually know where I am after the flop betting. I've been pretty good at keeping the pots small and changing betting patterns, and I'm happy with that. I'm trying to figure out how much raising I can get away with before people realize that I'm getting away with complete and utter theft.

I'm also trying to work on my 5-handed or smaller play. I'm pretty aggressive about stealing the blinds, but I tend not to raise pots with limpers in them, and I usually don't repop. I think that's a leak and that I'm not the only thief out there, but I need to get more of a feel on when to smack them down.

I leave you with this:



PokerStars Game #6651580053: Tournament #33811616, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2006/10/16 - 01:41:51 (ET)
Table '33811616 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Schwimmhose (585 in chips)
Seat 2: LittleLollie (2470 in chips)
Seat 3: gsm10 (2670 in chips)
Seat 4: jplusa (1420 in chips)
Seat 5: Rhodophyta (560 in chips)
Seat 6: survic11 (1400 in chips)
Seat 7: maxsweja (1470 in chips)
Seat 8: whydoit (1440 in chips)
Seat 9: WolfOnTheFol (1485 in chips)
whydoit: posts small blind 10
WolfOnTheFol: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WolfOnTheFol [Th 5h]
Schwimmhose: calls 20
LittleLollie: folds
gsm10: folds
jplusa: folds
Rhodophyta: folds
survic11: calls 20
maxsweja: folds
whydoit: calls 10
WolfOnTheFol: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd 5s 5d]

Big blind special.

whydoit: checks
WolfOnTheFol: checks
Schwimmhose: checks
survic11: checks
*** TURN *** [Kd 5s 5d] [2h]
whydoit: bets 40
WolfOnTheFol: calls 40
Schwimmhose: calls 40
survic11: folds

I think I might've played this a little too slowly, particularly with the diamond draw, but I thought someone might have a king and get aggressive later. The pot was miniscule anyway.

*** RIVER *** [Kd 5s 5d 2h] [As]

Oh man, that did it for someone.

whydoit: checks
WolfOnTheFol: bets 140
Schwimmhose: raises 140 to 280
whydoit: folds
WolfOnTheFol: raises 1145 to 1425 and is all-in

LOOK AT ME! I'M AN IDIOT WITH A WEAK KICKER!

Schwimmhose: calls 245 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WolfOnTheFol: shows [Th 5h] (three of a kind, Fives)

I lied.

Schwimmhose: shows [Ad Ks] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
WolfOnTheFol collected 1250 from pot

This amused me, particularly since I've been wondering if it might be better to limp AK from the SB/BB with two other people in the pot and I hate being out of position when I miss. I havn't done it yet, but it's something I've been contemplating.

SNG grind

I've been told by multiple people that the fastest way to grow a bankroll is to multitable SNGs. That, combined with a downswing in my ring games (Which I'm pretty sure is due to variance, but whatever) has led me to start multitabling the 10+1s on Stars. I played three tables this afternoon and was pretty comfortable with it, so I'm probably going to generally play four, adding more if I can handle it.

Apparently I need to start posting hand histories on here. I usually post most questions I have to the pokertips.org forums, but I'll post entertaining ones or hands I'm proud of in here. Since I tend to be proud of situations where I avoid losing a lot of chips as opposed to "hey, I got set over set!" they won't incite a ton of awe, but whatever.

I'm not sure how many real hours/table hours/total SNGs I should play before I get some sort of accurate-ish ROI numbers (More or less when I should move to the 20s) so anyone who has useful information on that should comment/IM me/contact me some other way.

Update

Draw's been going well; rakeback isn't going to work out for a while, though. I found a site that was like, hey, sign up with us and we'll hook you up etc etc. You had to download and register through links they provided, then sign up with them to get rakeback started. After I downloaded and opened accounts on pretty much every major site, I went to register and was informed that due to my residing in Washington State, I wouldn't be allowed rakeback as online poker is illegal in my jursidiction. (Washington recently made online poker a felony; the law was designed to prosecute some people who had set up online games that were competing with the B&Ms and Indian casinos around here. Individual players have not been targeted.) Thanks, guys, I sure appreciate the fact that now I won't be able to get rakeback at Absolute, UB, FT, Pokerroom, etc, etc. Hopefully I'll be able to convince them when I go home for Christmas that I moved back to Oregon. (If that doesn't work out, what would the sites do to me if I signed up for new accounts using Max instead of Maxwell for my first name, with a different address but same last name?)

Little annoyed there.

Anyway.

I've been playing 1-2 draw for the last week and a half on Paradise and Carnaval. 17.4 real hours, 22 table hours, 4.4 BB/hr for just over $150 profit. I like the game a lot; it's a little boring when the cards are cold, but it's still interesting to watch.

The primary purpose of this post was to record my first 2-4 draw session. I bought in for $100, played for about 45 minutes, and ended at 118.60. The game was very similar to a normal 1-2 game; people doing all sorts of limping with low pairs and draws, similar tactics, etc. Cards weren't particularly hot or cold, so I think it's a fine sample even though it's obviously insignificant statistically.

For the first couple orbits, I didn't get any playable hands, which gave me a little time to get used to the fact that all the numbers were bigger than I was used to. I'm okay with losing pretty much my entire roll (Poker's my primary hobby these days, and I don't mind spending money on my hobbies.) but it was a little unnerving. After I just stopped thinking about money and began translating dollar amounts into number of bets, I was pretty much fine. I wasn't playing scared and generally was happy with my mental state.

For most of the session, I was down a couple bets. Fairly early on, I had eights up and was heads up with a tight guy after the draw. He had limped, I raised, and he drew one. He didn't call raises with his draws, but he folded queens up and below. (Or at least didn't call with anything better.) We both drew one, and I figured he had a better two pair and would fold to my bet. I bet, and he raised. I think he filled up, but I'm not sure; I had to fold.

That was the only really interesting hand; I'm getting better at actually listening to the little voice that tells me to fold. It's almost always right, but until recently I wouldn't believe it and lost a lot on crying calls that I didn't need to make.

These are depressing to update when you lose.

I had a bad run at the HU SNGs; after about seventy I'm a little above even. Not that bad, but I'm still not sure where my leaks are, so I moved on. I did some sessions at 25 NL and lost about $50, one a full buyin on AK vs 85 where he had middle pair and caught two pair on the river, and the others assorted losses. I dropped more playing a $20 MTT at Stars, gave a $20 SNG a shot (I'd been wanting to do that for a while, but losing still hurt.) and played in some lower MTTs. Overall I went down about $150 over a week or so. Downswings are inevitable, etc, but I still think I was playing poorly. Not the cards per se (I'm sure I have leaks, but there's nothing I think back on and wonder how utterly stupid I could have been to do that.) but rather the stakes. Okay, the $20 SNG was something I've wanted to do for a while, but a $20 MTT? I have no business in those. (I'm not too upset about trying to 25 NL either; that was going to happen eventually.)

Anyway, I've decided to restrict myself to the 5.00+fee MTTs for the foreseeable future (Up for last-longer pots, though; I tend to view the PTips assaults more as entertainment than something I count against my roll.) and I've been looking for a game to build my roll with.

I think I've found it: Five card draw, poker from the days of yore. Hustlr turned me on to it (Big props for that, and giving me tips) at Paradise and CarnavalPokerBet.com (email me for rakeback at Carnaval.)

Since Thursday I've played a little over eleven hours (three or so of that playing two tables to clear Paradise's bonus) and I'm up $86.90. It's 1-2 limit with two betting rounds. That's 4BB/hr for a game I just learned to play. I'm kind of excited. (Yes, it could be variance; I had a session where I dropped almost $50. Earlier that day, though, I was up over $60. I'm still making mistakes, missing value and paying off when I shouldn't.)