bam, heater

is nice; up like ten stacks over the weekend. Running well and playing not poorly (less poorly than normal? I dunno; I don't want to say "good" but yeah) and such yields profit. Here's some hands; I try to pick interesting ones but since I don't remember my exact holdings I just end up filtering PT for my recent large ones and pick stuff that's fairly nonstandard or hands where I made a mistake. I know I have hands somewhere that have some interesting bluffs and calls but since I didn't write them down at the time they're lost to my PT database. I'll try to work on that next time.

Oh, and I might make a video sometime soon; probably two tables of FT 50 NL.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119129

This looks like horrific spew, but the guy is a TAG reg and can raise my continuation bet really wide here. Unfortunately he had aces this time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119142

This might look like horrific spew, but this guy is awful; his range is something like any pair and most aces.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119153

Given this guy's stack it's going to be really hard for me to fold any non A/K flop anyway, so let's just get it in now.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119176

I actually think checkraising the turn all in (or getting the free card) is better than double barreling here because the five doesn't actually change anything, but yeah, get there then valuetown. Dunno what he was thinking.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119198

I should probably bet the turn here. I was actually mostly concerned with how to get value from AK because of the queen; AK beats pretty much only KK on that board and AQ auto felts, so I checked the turn hoping to induce or get a call on the river. However, I think if I do something like half pot on the turn half pot on the river I can get crying calls the whole way down, or I should pot the river trying to represent a busted hearts draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119207

I bet the flop here a lot of the time, but decided not to because I knew this guy would fold anything that wasn't a nine or better and that's a tiny part of his range. It's kind of questionable because I get the most action from cards that beat me, but if the turn is anything other than an ace I can bet about two third of the pot and might get looked up by a decent ace high. Or villain might turn a worse top pair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119222

Man I loves me a turn checkraise. It's awesome against floaters or for value depending on the situation, and generally keeps me unpredictable. I think since I've been mixing up my plays and doing more raising and whatnot I'm getting looked up lighter, too. It's pretty awesome.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1119235

I don't think I played this hand particularly well but villain's line made no sense and I'm a fan of minraising to put the fear of God in people so here we go. I think he had something like a king with a low kicker or a middle pair, but I think I should probably make it more like $35 or fold; it would really suck to have something like TT make a crying call in that spot.

Back in the swing of things

I've only played about fifteen hundred hands in the last couple days but now I should have inf time for poker until finals, so expect more stuff to come later. Running fine, set over set a full ring nit when I sat for two orbits because the lobby made it look like a good game. It lied, but some dude limp-called, flop was like fivehanded, I have JJ on something like T53r, he c/cs and my spidey sense starts tingling, then I turn a jack and rape him. Full ring is weaksauce, though; real men play 6-max.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105759

It's probably not a bad idea to bet the turn here but I figured I basically had to get it in because of the flush draw. Lo and behold...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105764

I usually play these a bit faster but I couldn't figure out what he had. Turn is obviously vomit given preflop, but dude was running aggro bordering on maniac so I couldn't see him not raising TT/99 preflop. I figured he had Kh or air. I wonder if it might not be better to just get it in on the turn because the Kh might crying call and bluffs don't have fold equity on the river. I should probably shove the river, too, because Kh probably calls but probably doesn't bet. Villain later berated me for not extracting more (leading me to ponder lines that will induce threebet bluffs 100BBs deep) and I mean I'm pretty sure I maxed it against his hand but not his range. Oops.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105789

I should probably checkraise to $28 or so if I'm gonna take that line. If he checks behind and a flush gets there, I'm gonna c/f river, otherwise c/c, but he can probably bet a really wide range here. I don't see him shoving with AT-, so the fold is fine. I dunno what else I could really do; I mean, I can c/c but then he draws for free and my life gets hard on the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105797

Going for a checkraise on the turn. The river call is kinda sketch, but he's supposed to call light figuring I'm bluffing, and his minraise should probably fold out most bluffs. I guess that might be FPS but it's not impossible he has J9, NFD, QT, etc.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105805

This is probably standard; I mean, I can raise the flop but then if the turn is paint or a heart I'm screwed so I want to keep it small. I guess I could check the turn behind but my hand is super vulnerable so I want to bet; I think he shows up with a set or an overpair a lot here, but I think the lowest part of his range is FD+overs so yeah.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105812

Probably pretty standard. River might be kinda greedy but I think betting is right.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105817

Pretty standard cooler. I beat pretty much exactly AQ and JJ on the river, but like come on ten to one. Saving bets is for minbet players.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105823

I don't even know what to do here. Granted that flop is pretty dry so like, bet and two callers, could definitely be a higher pair out there, and not everyone threebets QQ+, so my raise is on the sketchy side, but if I call and any paint comes off I'm in a whole lot of trouble, so I figured to just raise and not put any more money in unless I two outer someone.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105878

I'm WA/WB on the flop, and don't really have any sort of exit strategy if I bet and get called, so I figure I might as well resign myself to stacking off and hope to induce from AK.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105888

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105889

Both of these hands involve minraising for fun and profit. I figure on the first one that pretty much anything short of AK has to fold on the flop, and on the second that he probably won't double barrel air if I just flat call but might threebet bluff if he senses weakness and obviously if he has aces we just get it in now.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1105833

Turn should fold out all non king hands. River is just a gift I guess.

asdkjjfhaslkdj

DontBluffMePlzz is in four of the FTOPS events and two 50 NL tables. I'm pretty sure he's just blowing off steam at the 50 NL tables; he's making crazy bluffs and whatnot. He's actually a pretty good LAG (he valuetowned dorinvandy with 75 vs 44 on a T55J8 board by betting twice the pot on the flop and shoving for like a stack and a half into a 40 BB pot on the river) but he's prone to random insanity.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2436724732: Table Stardust (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:06:28 ET - 2007/05/16
Seat 1: dorinvandy ($98.15)
Seat 2: Frogboy4L ($83.20)
Seat 3: Kaspie ($23)
Seat 4: teamtru ($50)
Seat 5: LFdM ($97.25)
Seat 6: DontBluffMePLZZ ($208.35)
LFdM posts the small blind of $0.25
DontBluffMePLZZ posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Frogboy4L [5h 6h]
dorinvandy raises to $1.75
Frogboy4L calls $1.75
Kaspie folds
LFdM folds
DontBluffMePLZZ calls $1.25
*** FLOP *** [5s 2c 6d]
DontBluffMePLZZ bets $206.60, and is all in
dorinvandy calls $96.40, and is all in
Frogboy4L calls $81.45, and is all in
DontBluffMePLZZ shows [Th 2h]
dorinvandy shows [3c 3d]
Frogboy4L shows [5h 6h]
Uncalled bet of $110.20 returned to DontBluffMePLZZ
*** TURN *** [5s 2c 6d] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [5s 2c 6d 8s] [3h]
DontBluffMePLZZ shows a pair of Twos
dorinvandy shows three of a kind, Threes
dorinvandy wins the side pot ($29.90) with three of a kind, Threes
Frogboy4L: aoishdfaiohdfaguegq
Frogboy4L shows two pair, Sixes and Fives
dorinvandy wins the main pot ($246.85) with three of a kind, Threes
Frogboy4L is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $279.75 Main pot $249.85. Side pot $29.90. | Rake $3
Board: [5s 2c 6d 8s 3h]
Seat 1: dorinvandy showed [3c 3d] and won ($276.75) with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 2: Frogboy4L showed [5h 6h] and lost with two pair, Sixes and Fives
Seat 3: Kaspie (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: teamtru is sitting out
Seat 5: LFdM (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: DontBluffMePLZZ (big blind) showed [Th 2h] and lost with a pair of Twos

I know this isn't actually a two outer. But still. hyachacha, life tilt, and such.

uh, I'm back, I guess

I run bad.

Fortunately (or not, I guess) I'm currently running bad at life. Poker is going okay.

I stopped blogging a while ago because I got fairly proficient at self-analyzing my hands, and was talking to a friend of mine about the ones that give me trouble.

Then Shads was like "hey I'm restarting my blog" and I'm all "oh I guess it's the cool thing to do" (Note: Shads is much, much smarter than I am. Go read his stuff. I mean, go, do it now.)

So here we are.

I switched to Full Tilt when Doyles booted Americans. I ran really hot, then played bad and ran bad, then broke even for 10k hands playing bad and running worse. I got a bit discouraged and stopped playing for a while. (Midterms also had something to do with this.) I wasn't playing particularly well, I wasn't running particularly well, and I wasn't really enjoying poker. If I was making decent cash, I could live with grinding away, but I wasn't. Took a break, re-oriented, started playing again. Now, I've been busy with academia for this, too, but I've had a couple breakeven sessions and just finished a pretty awesome one.

I've come to a few conclusions.

I can be vulnerable to fancy play syndrome and giving my opponents too much credit. This leads to spewy calls or bets. I don't do it often, but like, donking off half a stack still sucks. I can float, but I'm not identifying the best situations for it. I'm getting better at double barreling, but basically being OOP sucks and I'm still not super good at it. I'm not inducing bluffs as often as I can be, and I'm not maximising value because I'm giving people too much credit for call range.

Observe:

(savage, I apparently ended up three buyins on my last session. side note: I don't track that stuff during a session, and I try not to keep track out of them, either. PT just tells me the total when I go through recent hands for pokerhand histories, though, so eh.)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1080464

Villain has a four here never. Thus, valuetown. (yeah he can have 76, maybe 65, but I think he plays both differently on the flop and he's UTG etc) See? People call with the most damnfool things. I thought that ace was wrecking my action from stuff like jacks but now felting AQ. Is nice when they felt second pair.

I also have a hand somewhere where the board is like AKxQQ where it was twoflush on the flop and the flush got there on the river. I had KQ. I don't remember preflop action, but I know I bet the flop and turn and the pot was like $30 on the river. I shoved for $40 because the guy was a passive calling station and I was pretty sure he had a FD and would pay me off. He calls, shows A5 no draw.

Stop doing fancy multistreet bluffs. They're not necessary. And people call. Like, really, even floating is really sketch at some points.

Yeah, Sklansky's all about not betting when no worse hand will call. "worse hand" is subjective for different people. If in doubt, betting probably isn't significantly worse than checking, and is usually better.

Inducing bluffs:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1080476

This one's actually really thin but I got to look really masterful so here we are. He has a missed flush draw a lot here, but that's kind of a problem because the NFD is top pair no kicker and he might check the turn behind if he's a little girl or trying to get me to bet the river (the bet-check-bet line gets looked up awful light, I've found) so this is a problem. However, he limp-called...he doesn't have a set but he could have 88-TT for sure, or the missed FD, and I'm getting 3:1...sure.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1080481

His range is a lot wider than a king. It's kind of a problem because higher pocket pairs are a portion of that, but I can see him c/c turn block river with those. He might have a flush draw, but if I raise he's probably going to call and be right so that's not good. Still, like, Ax, diamond draw, etc. I fold a diamond turn for sure.

Being bluffed, OOP in general, etc:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1080496

I hate when this happens. This looks like a peel from a jack or a set a lot, but he can bluff pretty wide here too. Still, there's the river, and yeah.

Random thoughts:

I never know what to do when I get checkminraised on the flop with two overcards. I usually call, miss the turn, then fold. (I don't really have a hand to illustrate this, but yeah.)

I don't checkraise bluff terribly often. I actually had some situations come up today where I was pretty sure someone was bluffing and I thought I could fold them out with a shove but didn't have the balls to pull the trigger.

I fold people out too often. I should probably start slowing down with sets and TPTK a little bit. (like, if I have a set and they have TPTK they'll get it in for me unless they're a nit, so let's cover the fringe cases.)

I'm still kinda working on threebetting, particularly out of position.

Being aggressive with draws is :D.

Weird as this may seem, I don't take particularly good notes because I focus too much on watching for big pots instead of tendencies wrt second barreling, how draws are played, checkraises, and so on. Knowing set and overpair lines are good, but still.

I think I had more of these but my train of thought derailed.

Oh.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1080508

Finally, some other poor bastard got counterfeited. (no comment on turn line. normally I bet/fold that.)

I dunno how often I'll update this. Probably not more than a few times a week, probably not less than once a fortnight. Also kinda depends on like, life activities.