Confidence Restored

After yesterday’s unpleasantness I decided to reevaluate my approach to poker.

Not my approach to how I play AJ after a raise or when to limp with aces, but what I will call my lifestyle approach to poker. Up until yesterday I had been sleeping in real late, rarely showering or eating, and generally living pretty unhealthily (is that a word?).

I decided that if poker is going to be my “job” I should treat it as such. I have to be in a healthy state of mind as well as body. I decided I will shower and eat before every session. I will also devote my entire psyche to the game at hand, with no alt-tabbed news or “entertainment” web pages open. Seems pretty simple but I distinctly remember when I was getting spanked over and over again at the tables yesterday that I almost didn’t care. I was completely immersed in some webpage, was hungry and didn’t feel all that well. I concluded this morning that this attributed to my losses and will not allow such externalities to continue to interfere.

Today, I got up at a reasonable hour, showered, had breakfast and spent an hour reading some blogs and other pages before sitting down to the tables. After 90 minutes I was up $200 and feeling real good.

A good lesson learned.

I'm a big boy today

Some late night sit&go action...

PokerStars Tournament #15830729, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $100.00/$9.00
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $900.00 
Tournament started - 2005/11/30 - 01:27:38 (ET)

Dear RikkiDee, 

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $450.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.


Boo ya! First $100 buy-in first place finish!

I can hang with the big boys.

Daily Ramblings

Last night I loaded up a few sit&go’s of various buyin’s after I deposited $200 into my pokerstars account. Started with a $20/180 and a $30/18, losing both quick. Then in a fit of rage, loaded up 6 tourneys from $10-$30 and managed to cash in exactly zero. Because I was so happy, I figured why not keep going on this rush, and loaded up 2 $50/18 and a $20/180 tourney. Probably in spite of myself, I ended up winning one of the $50 tourneys and ended up finally cashing in that 180 MTT/Sit&Go stars puts on with a 9th place finish. I probably should have ended up with a better finish since I donked off my 2nd place stack by calling an all-in reaise with A8 – smart.

So all in all - not a terrible night despite its early unpleasantness.

Woke up this morning and loaded up 2 1/2 NL tables over at poker room, which is my least favorite site so far. Ended up down a buy-in after some flounder called my re-reraise preflop with 96 in the SB and hit the nut straight to take out my aces. This “down a buy-in” is becoming a theme I’m not warming up to, and need to start to consider making some tough laydowns…

Speak of the devil, I saved a hand from last night that I thought was a particularly good laydown. And I know how exciting laydowns are, so I’m going to post it.

Seat 1: Calli5 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: E2thaDiddy (1520 in chips)
Seat 3: Whyt Choklit (1470 in chips)
Seat 4: glenametz (1470 in chips)
Seat 5: RikkiDee (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Turdwacker (1870 in chips)
Seat 7: Judyd1227 (1430 in chips)
Seat 8: jepeto (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: Spiderman919 (1240 in chips)
Turdwacker: posts small blind 10
Judyd1227: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Kc Ks]
jepeto: folds
Spiderman919: folds
Calli5: calls 20
E2thaDiddy: folds
Whyt Choklit: calls 20
glenametz: folds
RikkiDee: raises 80 to 100
Turdwacker: calls 90
Judyd1227: folds
Calli5: calls 80
Whyt Choklit: calls 80
*** FLOP *** [4d Qs Jd]

Flops like this with over pairs for me have been the bane of my existence. I have learned to proceed with caution since it is very likely someone would have limped in and called a raise with JQ, 44, 9T, etc.

Turdwacker: bets 100
Calli5: folds
Whyt Choklit: raises 200 to 300
RikkiDee: folds

Stop the fucking presses, I folded an overpair!

Turdwacker: calls 200
*** TURN *** [4d Qs Jd] [As]
Turdwacker: bets 240
Whyt Choklit: calls 240
*** RIVER *** [4d Qs Jd As] [7c]
Turdwacker: checks
Whyt Choklit: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Turdwacker: shows [3c Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
Whyt Choklit: shows [Jh Qh] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
Whyt Choklit collected 1500 from pot

That’s probably the first time I’ve folded in that situation, where I would almost always reraise before. What I figured, facing a raise and a re-raise into the pre-flop raiser (me) on a pretty scary board, I’m probably beaten! Genius! And the validation of being right made it that much better.

Back to today. After dropping a few hundred on the site that won’t be mentioned, I went back to poker stars in another fit of rage to play some higher stakes sit & gos. Got the courage to buy-in to a $100 18 person tourney and actually did pretty well. I ended up in a disappointing 5th when I decided that the chip leader had been pushing around the table long enough and decided to take my pathetic little AK over the top of him all in. Clearly that was the wrong move as he had a pair and it held up and I was out. From 2nd to 5th in a second. I guess you are supposed to fold AK in that position.

Still angry, I quickly joined a $50 heads up game just to spite myself and hopefully clear out that last remaining little bit of cash in my stars account. Ended up being the most hilarious match of my life. Actually it was so short I’ll post it here.

PokerStars Game #3194327788: Tournament #15808697, Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2005/11/29 - 17:36:12 (ET)
Table '15808697 1' One on One Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: babybibo (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: RikkiDee (1500 in chips)
babybibo: posts small blind 10
RikkiDee: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [3h 7d]
babybibo: calls 10
RikkiDee: checks
*** FLOP *** [5c 3s 2d]
RikkiDee: bets 40
babybibo: raises 40 to 80
RikkiDee: calls 40
*** TURN *** [5c 3s 2d] [2s]
RikkiDee: checks
babybibo: bets 40
RikkiDee: calls 40
*** RIVER *** [5c 3s 2d 2s] [3c]
RikkiDee: checks
babybibo: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [3h 7d] (a full house, Threes full of Deuces)
babybibo: mucks hand
RikkiDee collected 280 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 280 | Rake 0
Board [5c 3s 2d 2s 3c]
Seat 1: babybibo (button) (small blind) mucked [5d Qd]
Seat 2: RikkiDee (big blind) showed [3h 7d] and won (280) with a full house, Threes full of Deuces

PokerStars Game #3194333528: Tournament #15808697, Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2005/11/29 - 17:36:50 (ET)
Table '15808697 1' One on One Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: babybibo (1360 in chips)
Seat 2: RikkiDee (1640 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 10
babybibo: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Kd 9s]
RikkiDee: calls 10
babybibo: checks
*** FLOP *** [4h 7c Kh]
babybibo: checks
RikkiDee: bets 40
babybibo: folds
RikkiDee collected 40 from pot
RikkiDee: shows [Kd 9s] (a pair of Kings)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 40 | Rake 0
Board [4h 7c Kh]
Seat 1: babybibo (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: RikkiDee (button) (small blind) collected (40)

PokerStars Game #3194336659: Tournament #15808697, Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2005/11/29 - 17:37:11 (ET)
Table '15808697 1' One on One Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: babybibo (1340 in chips)
Seat 2: RikkiDee (1660 in chips)
babybibo: posts small blind 10
RikkiDee: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Kd 5d]
babybibo: raises 20 to 40
RikkiDee: calls 20
*** FLOP *** [4d Td 3d]
RikkiDee: checks
babybibo: bets 40
RikkiDee: calls 40
*** TURN *** [4d Td 3d] [Jc]
RikkiDee: bets 60
babybibo: raises 60 to 120
RikkiDee: raises 240 to 360
babybibo: calls 240
*** RIVER *** [4d Td 3d Jc] [6c]
RikkiDee: bets 350
babybibo: calls 350
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Kd 5d] (a flush, King high)
babybibo: mucks hand
RikkiDee collected 1580 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1580 | Rake 0
Board [4d Td 3d Jc 6c]
Seat 1: babybibo (button) (small blind) mucked [Tc Ts]
Seat 2: RikkiDee (big blind) showed [Kd 5d] and won (1580) with a flush, King high

PokerStars Game #3194342834: Tournament #15808697, Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2005/11/29 - 17:37:52 (ET)
Table '15808697 1' One on One Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: babybibo (550 in chips)
Seat 2: RikkiDee (2450 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 10
babybibo: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ks Ad]
RikkiDee: raises 40 to 60
babybibo: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [Jc 5h 3d]
babybibo: checks
RikkiDee: checks
*** TURN *** [Jc 5h 3d] [8d]
babybibo: checks
RikkiDee: checks
*** RIVER *** [Jc 5h 3d 8d] [Th]
babybibo: checks
RikkiDee: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
babybibo: shows [4d Qh] (high card Queen)
RikkiDee: shows [Ks Ad] (high card Ace)
RikkiDee collected 120 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 120 | Rake 0
Board [Jc 5h 3d 8d Th]
Seat 1: babybibo (big blind) showed [4d Qh] and lost with high card Queen
Seat 2: RikkiDee (button) (small blind) showed [Ks Ad] and won (120) with high card Ace

PokerStars Game #3194346923: Tournament #15808697, Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2005/11/29 - 17:38:19 (ET)
Table '15808697 1' One on One Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: babybibo (490 in chips)
Seat 2: RikkiDee (2510 in chips)
babybibo: posts small blind 10
RikkiDee: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Kc 5s]
babybibo: calls 10
RikkiDee: checks
*** FLOP *** [3d Kd 6s]
RikkiDee: checks
babybibo: bets 60
RikkiDee: raises 180 to 240
babybibo: calls 180
*** TURN *** [3d Kd 6s] [3c]
RikkiDee: bets 250
babybibo: calls 230 and is all-in
RikkiDee said, "gg"
*** RIVER *** [3d Kd 6s 3c] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Kc 5s] (two pair, Kings and Threes)
babybibo: shows [9s 9d] (two pair, Nines and Threes)
RikkiDee collected 980 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 980 | Rake 0
Board [3d Kd 6s 3c 7s]
Seat 1: babybibo (button) (small blind) showed [9s 9d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Threes
Seat 2: RikkiDee (big blind) showed [Kc 5s] and won (980) with two pair, Kings and Threes

Pretty much just handed the game to me, thanks for the $100.

After re-reading this post I realize I’m way too prone to tilt / annoyance to do this poker thing, I have to stop punishing myself.

Homesick

Jumping from poker site to poker site collecting signup / reload bonus’ is on the surface, the most profitable way to make a poker living.

The theory goes, you play your regular game, making your regular BB/Hour win rate, and once you’ve cleared the raked hand requirement, you get a bonus on top of what you made playing poker. It’s win freakin win-win right?

Well the only problem is, most of these sites that I’ve been playing on have less than stellar interfaces, compared to Pokerstars. Now, Pokerstars’ interface isn’t anything special. It is functional and simple, nothing flashy. But one thing it does have that helps me immensely is the easy use hand history checker. No other site that I’ve played on comes close to it’s functionality. Most other sites just have a small scrolling chat box that you are constantly scrolling around in. It can be very frustrating playing 2+ tables trying to figure out what happened at a previous table. Pokerstars has it right there, in a nice little box, giving you a quick recap on any hand.

Additionally, Pokerstars will usually show you what hand your opponent mucked when they called you and lost. No other site that I’ve played at shows this. This feature is an extremely strong advantage for me. I generally will reread every hand history that happens, just to see how certain players played certain hands. Finding out how they play their draws, their big hands, their weak hands, and so on, is a massive advantage that I can’t live without.

Sure these other sites offer bonus’ while Pokerstars rarely does, but does that bonus add up to the advantage I have over my opponents when I know what cards they are willing to call with and lose? I’m not yet sure, but my stars results have always been strong, while so far, with these other sites, I’ve had a much rougher time with variance.

How the mighty can fall

A day can start off so simple, and end so tragic.

It was Friday today, and I decided I just wanted to finish up my deposit bonus on Bet365 and watch movies or something all day. I only had to play 90 more raked hands to pick up another $100 bonus on top of the $100 bonus they already gave me (it’s a very nice signup / monthly bonus they have going if you are interested).

So I sat down, playing only one table. When I started the day I was up $300 total in my account. A few hands and I’ll be up over $500 hopefully – at the very worst I’ll be cashing out with that $300 + the $100 bonus. So easy…

So I pick up aces on the third hand in and scoop a $77 pot. Very next hand I pick up AQ and hit the nut straight on the turn for a sweet $164 pot. I’m thinking, damn this life is good. Only a few more hands and I’ll be up and out of here. I’m telling myself, don’t do anything stupid, I just want to relax for the weekend.

And then, the death hand, KK shows up a few hands later, and of course I have to pick up a set on the turn, getting all my money in to his 6-T straight which his 78 fit oh so nicely in. And I’m now stuck 1 buy-in. FUCK.

I just wanted my damn deposit bonus, now I gotta break even or I’m going to be pissed all weekend. And I realize this is pretty irrational behavior for the special professional poker player that I am, but truthfully I am still pretty new at this, and booking wins means something too me even though in the back of my mind I know its just one long session.

I actually manage to double up again to get somewhat even and am feeling good again, when I pick up those two fuckers – the pocket aces that will go on to ruin me. I’m up against another big stack, whom I had been playing against all day and is pretty much the worst player I’ve ever played against. Flop comes king high rainbow. Long story short, we get our money in on the turn. He flips over K8 for "top pair", bu the river comes an ugly fucking 8 and I want to shoot myself. I just fought myself back to even and I’m stuck $400 again.

This was a recurring theme over the last 2 days that I’ve played on bet365. The players there are of two types. The extremely fishy ones and the super solid/tight ones playing 8 tables at once. I have a hard time dealing with the fishy ones since their calls tell you absolutely nothing about their hand, and I end up losing big pots to random 2 pairs and gutshots. Yea, I know that happens, and I should rejoice that I’m playing with fish to begin with. But for some reason every time I got up, I would be brought right back down the next hand - unreal.

So out of the 13 days that I’ve been doing this pro poker thing, I havn’t actually booked a loss, but today I’ll have to concede defeat, down $143. Tough loss, but I do need to deal with these losses with indifference, as they are all part of the long game that I play. I’m going to go over all my individual big losses in poker tracker and see how to improve, or how to lose less. I would hope to see that I got my money in with the best of it each big loss, but I doubt it. I imagine half the time I’ll have the goods and got sucked out and the other half I’ll have just made a bad call or read.

By studying these losses I’ll hopefully retain that information and when presented with that situation again I can make the correct play.

Fuck me.

Unforgetable Hands

You ever experience hands that you don’t realize at the time but end up staying in your mind for the rest of your poker playing career? They seem rather insignificant or average at the time, but some key details stick in there and you can’t shake them. They end up keeping you awake at night as you replay them over and over.

Well maybe you don’t think like that, but when I am obsessed with something, that’s what happens. So I thought I would briefly go over some of the hands that keep me up at night, maybe if I expel them onto this blog from my mind they will leave me at peace.

Coincidentally, they are all hands that I have played live. My live play accounts for about 0.01% of my experience, but because it was live, you remember more, and therefore have stuck. Most of these happened while I went to Vegas for the first time.

Alright, first hand.

I was playing 1/2 NL at MGM Grand. I had been playing at this table for about 5 hours now, and had already dropped one buy-in, but had made some of my money back. I held the Q9 of spades and limped in. Flop comes T87 with one spade. I check, someone bets with one caller and I call with my straight draw. Turn comes a second ten – which is a spade, giving me a flush draw on top of my open ender. I decide to take the lead now – representing a ten perhaps, and make a sizable raise into the pot. The guy beside me who originally bet, says that he had 87, and folds since he assumes someone has a ten. The final guy – who was a real unknown to me at this point takes a look at his hand. He then laughingly shows it to the guy behind him like “heh, the 2nd ten showed up and someone is betting into me” and calls me. I was worried by his actions, even though I didn’t know what they meant. The river comes another ten, making the board read T87TT. I froze up. From what he did on the turn, I had already figured that he had been holding a ten, and now just made quads. I sat there for a good minute, trying to figure out what to do. I was wearing sunglasses at the time, so I was able to study him some more. He was staring me down intently. He was an older larger guy, one who seemed to have a past of intimidation and violence. I thought about betting, but because of his actions on the turn, I was convinced I was beat and decided after more than a minute of waiting to check (terrible move on my part, a long pause followed by a check is usually always extremely weak). He then quickly checked after me, showing A9. He scoops in the pot with his ace high and straight draw, letting out a big sigh of relief. I immediately knew I played horribly, and from this day on every time this scenario comes up I never give up on the pot. There were so many reasons I should have bet that on the river and simply because of his actions on the turn, I couldn’t. The fact that he was staring me down, trying to intimidate me should have been the most obvious clue, but I haven’t really played much live poker so I can’t put too much faith in my reads. If he had quads, would he really try to intimidate me from not betting? Of course not. I needed to make a semi-large bet there, and hope they would fold. I felt like an idiot all day after this one.

2nd hand.

Same game, same opponent. I had JJ on the button and raised it to 15 (in a 1/2 game!) and got the same guy to call me. Flop comes like 9 high rainbow, and he checks to me. I make a standard bet of I think about $20 and he calls me. Turn comes a K and this time he bets into me, I suppose he is representing a K. I can’t really put him on a K since I would assume he would check raise me, plus why would he chase with a K in his hand unless he had 9K, and even still why would you call a massive raise preflop with K9? So I just didn’t’ believe him and I called. The river is a blank and he puts in another big bet of about $50 this time. And what is different this time, is that he isn’t even looking at me. He is staring off into nowhere, not even paying attention to me. Again, I should have read right through his transparent ruse, but I still just didn’t believe he hit that king. Of course I paid him off, and he flips over AK. I feel like an even bigger idiot. But I did learn a real nice lesson. Strong means weak and weak means strong! Wow, that actually applies in real life, not just in poker books. Again, I was new to the live game and couldn’t put a lot of faith in my reads, but these 2 hands have given me the confidence to at least have a little reading ability. What I really should have figured out is that this obvious fish wasn’t bluffing. On the last hand with ace high he just checks when he could have (maybe should have?) bluffed on the river. He bets into me after I’ve shown strength AND willingness to call, always a sign of strength – not bluffing. So I guess I learned my lesson, and had to pay about $100 for it.

3rd hand.

This one is a happy story. There was this maniac who just sat down at our table. He was truly insane, overbetting the shit out of pots and showing complete bluffs. He had only been playing at our table maybe 10 hands but his presence was immediately felt. Every hand he would play, he would reraise preflop. Like if someone raised to $10 – he would raise to $50 then show his 8T offsuit when the original raiser folded. He even had a little posse behind him since he was clearly fun to watch. So I pick up a measly A8s on the button and everyone folds to me. He is in the BB. I raise it to $10 and he surprisingly just calls this time – no reraise. I’m pretty sure he is weak here. The flop comes A55 and he immediately fires out a massive bet of $50 (into a $20 pot). When I saw him get involved with my pot I knew I was going to have to deal with this. The dude beside me who I had been conversing strategy and plays all day with whispered to me, “if you have an ace call him!” Yea, easy for him to say. I hemmed and hawed for about 30 seconds before just calling, hoping he would slow down. Turn comes a T and he quickly fires out another $100 bucks. The whole table erupts and I’m not sure what to do. I hem and haw for another minute deciding that if he does have like a 5 in his hand, he surely wouldn’t be betting like this, combined with my perceived reluctance to call – I think he is just continuing to try to bluff me. So I figure either I’m winning or going bust on this hand and say that I’m all in (the first time I said it in a live cash game! I got an immediate erection). My friends are watching this and are going nuts at this point. He calls me, not sure why, with his last $50. River comes another blank, and since neither of us had seen each others cards I ask him, “can you beat an ace?” He doesn’t really respond, and to further the point I then show him my hand and ask him again, “can you beat this?” He smiles, mucks his cards and says good hand, laughs and walks away. I still don’t know what he had, but I know what I had, a fucking massive pile of chips to stack and a raging boner to contain.

Last hand, I promise, and it will be quick.

I’m sitting to the left of a real old guy who had been playing super loose and pretty aggressive. Everyone at the table had been referring to him as “crazy joe” and he didn’t seem to mind. I had been playing for about 1.5 hours and hadn’t won a pot yet. I had folded about 95% of hands, and he was constantly laughing at me for folding. It was clear that the table was aware of my tight image since he was very vocal about it, so I decided to use it to my advantage. In the hand in question, there are a few limpers and Crazy Joe raises it up to $15 from the button (he did this every hand). To my surprise I look down in the SB and find two black kings staring at me. Finally, a playable hand. I decide to get tricky (not sure why) and call rather than reraising. In hindsight, I should have reraised since I know he would have called an all in at that point, being as loose as he was, but I was playing really weird that day. So I call, and a few limpers fold, but one limper – who had been playing really tight/weak calls as well. Crazy Joe then says to me, “welcome to the game”. Indeed! So of course the flop comes with a fucking ace on it and 2 diamonds. I want to shit my pants at this point, but decide to figure out where I am at and fire out a $20 bet, and the weak/tight player and Crazy Joe both call me. I want to fold my hand. The turn brings the third diamond, and I check, as does the tight/weak player. At this point Crazy Joe says, and I’m not sure why, “no no no no” like he didn’t want to give a free card, and bets like $40. At this point the table is pretty vocal, and is asking “who has the flush?” I immediately take this cue and reraise up to $120. Immediately the table gasps as it’s the first bet I’ve put in all afternoon, and even one guy says, “ahh there it is” (referring to the flush). I think in my head, thanks for the support! The weak/tight guy thinks for a bit and folds (I think he must have had like AQ or something) and then Crazy Joe looks at me, shows me his hand (Q9 of spades?) and says, “this guy is serious!” and folds. I show the bluff, and the table goes nuts. Joe sincerely congratulates me way and I leave the table. It was one of the only bluffs I pulled of in live play, and it felt damn good, especially against the maniac who I feared would call with any thing.

All these hands were at the MGM 1/2 NL tables, which is where I played most of the time. Playing live was extremely fun, but I would never do it for profit, since there is so much I don’t know or am uncomfortable with in the live game. When I got to Vegas I thought that the players would be able to read every twitch and hand gesture I made, so I decided to play super tight and solid, rarely bluffing. I wore sunglasses and a hat – something I’m not really proud of since it was such low stakes. I figured out that these players were tourists like me, and had no more reading abilities than I did. Everyone there was there for a good time, tipping the dealers and whatnot. You know you are playing against serious pros when no one tips the dealers – they are there for their daily feeding frenzy on the tourists, and any tips will cut into their profits. But if everyone is laughing, talking and tipping, you know you are playing against armatures like your self, and need not worry.

Hopefully I can rest in peace and these hands will stop haunting me at night.

Reality Check

Today started out like many others, I woke up, played a $30 sit&go with some of the leftover profits I had from the previous night, and of course won it, starting the day with a nice $100 profit. I then decided to get some real life stuff done, walked down to the bank and grocery store, smiling the whole way. Up until today, my quest for self-sustaining financial independence had been going great – I had been playing for just over a week showing steady profits every day, which in total added up to more than my daily goal of $200/day. I walked down the street with pride. I thought, “maybe this poker thing is the real deal, maybe I am that good”. And why not? I mean, it’s been a week, that’s long enough to base everything on!

And then; it came.

I got home and sat down to a quick 1/2 NL game for an hour or two before my girlfriend got home for dinner. I played my regular game, but had been pretty much keeping afloat, not really hitting much in the way of hands. I was down a mere $50 when the hand of God struck me down. I almost don’t even want to talk about it. I can’t even think about posting it can I? I mean, as a professional poker player, how can I allow myself to be ridiculed by my peers in such a public forum? I can’t… I mustn’t…

Seat 1: RikkiDee ($152.35 in chips)
Seat 2: hookm05 ($80 in chips)
Seat 3: twpt ($125.80 in chips)
Seat 4: papai50 ($221 in chips)
Seat 5: W.A. Plan R ($68.55 in chips)
Seat 6: DrGreve ($382.50 in chips)
W.A. Plan R: posts small blind $1
DrGreve: posts big blind $2
hookm05: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Jd Ks]
RikkiDee: calls $2
hookm05: checks
twpt: folds
papai50: folds
W.A. Plan R: folds
DrGreve: checks
*** FLOP *** [Jh Kd 4d]
DrGreve: bets $4
RikkiDee: raises $8 to $12
hookm05: folds
DrGreve: calls $8
*** TURN *** [Jh Kd 4d] [5h]
DrGreve: checks
RikkiDee: bets $10
DrGreve: calls $10

At this point I’m thinking, no diamond no diamond no diamond… convinced he was on a draw, which he was, I just had the wrong suit.

*** RIVER *** [Jh Kd 4d 5h] [Th]
DrGreve: checks
RikkiDee: bets $15
DrGreve: raises $343.50 to $358.50 and is all-in
RikkiDee said, "no way you hit a backdoor flush.."
hookm05 said, "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
RikkiDee: calls $113.35 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DrGreve: shows [2h Kh] (a flush, King high)
RikkiDee: mucks hand
DrGreve collected $304.70 from pot

His check raise on the river screamed that he hit that heart backdoor flush, and I even fucking called it in text. Obviously top 2 pair here is not the nuts, but I couldn’t put him on any hand except a flush (straight didn’t make any sense, he would need both cards contributing to the straight, and there is no way he called me down with just a gutshot draw). Here is a hand I can learn a lot from though, since it’s happened to me many times. This opponent wasn’t tricky, solid or skilled. He isn't going to pull this move as a bluff - so why am I calling? He was your typical loose/passive player that can’t lay down fucking top pair to a reraise. I had seen it many times before by this player. I knew for sure he did not have a set since he never reraised me on the flop or turn, and there is no way I could put him on TT since even he isn’t bad enough to call to the river with 3rd pair. The problem I should have figured out is, he knew I was strong – probably very strong since I had been playing my usual tight strategy and barely picked up anything remotely this good in the hour I had been playing, so if he had been watching me at all (probably not) he knew I had something big. Now I should have recognized him knowing that I was strong, because that check raise screams strength as well. He knew I would bet the river (obviously) and he knew that I had a very strong hand, possibly strong enough to call his all in. And because he was playing passively, I should have known that his bet showed even more strength.

Anyways, I knew I made a bad call before I even made it, and that’s something I need to learn and deal with if I am going to make a run at this poker thing. First I need to be disciplined to make this laydown, and I also need to be strong mentally enough to take this beat in stride. After this happened I was steaming for a good 2 hours. It wasn’t the first time I had lost a buyin to a stupid call, but it was the first time I had lost a buyin when it really meant something. $200 goes a long way for me in my young life – groceries, bills etc. I found it very difficult dealing with my first big loss, which will surly be mitigated over time – the more big losses I take. I then played the rest of the night trying to “get even” which is inherently a bad idea for many reasons, but this time it paid off for me. I started up 3 tables and actually played pretty well, showing a total profit of a surprising $238 for the night. So the day ended well, but I don’t think I should ever try to get even unless my head is clear and the loss is gone, since it can get very dangerous – obviously.

The last thing I learned from this hand is that I want to make sure that all my losses are from bad beats not bad calls. I want to realize that I’ve been sucked out and not pay the privilege to actually see it. If I lose a hand I want it to be because I got unlucky, like someone hitting a random two pair to my top pair top kicker, not because they had me beat and I’m the one making the mistake by continuing to bet/call. That is the goal. I want to identify in each loss where I made the mistake, and learn from it, and hopefully never do it again. Considering that if we played this hand 100 times I would win it about 81 times, I don’t feel too bad about my play, just the call. I have to avoid these costly calls.

Wow that was long, and I’m still in pain. Thanks for being a good listener.

Somewhere in the middle of America

I've always been intrigued by the game of Omaha, and figure I’ll need to learn it someday as when I’ve dominated the Hold’em game I’ll need a new victim. So I find myself playing the odd PL Omaha tourney now and then.

Now I don’t think that I should try to learn a game in a tournament setting, especially a low buy-in one, but I don’t have the patience or understanding of the game yet to play a ring Omaha game. I also usually try to stay away from Hi/Low, since I really don’t understand it that well. Obviously I understand what a low is, but I don’t really understand what hands I should be playing. Actually even in regular Omaha I don’t really know what hands I should be playing, but at least it’s a little clearer.

What’s really intrigued me about Omaha is that out of the 3 MTT’s I’ve played, I’ve cashed in 2 of them, and have won my fair share of sit&go’s. I can’t explain this whatsoever. Often times when I play in these MTT’s I find myself laughing at my own ineptitude. I’ll be sitting there on the turn after calling pre and post flop bets and all I’ll have is 3rd pair and a gut shot straight draw wondering how the fuck I convinced myself that I should be here. But somehow I manage to be successful and I don’t know why.

Some things I know about Omaha:

Draw to the nut flush/straight only. I’ve been beaten enough in my short Omaha career that the king high (or worse) flush (especially if there had been many people seeing the river) is rarely good. So if I’m calculating pot odds and such, I’ll need to do it with the ace in my hand.

A pot sized bet with the nuts on the flop or turn is correct. Actually I’m not sure if it’s correct but with the games that I’ve been playing, if I flop the nut straight/set, I’m going to lead out betting. People seem to love chasing and suckouts are approximately 83.4% more common in Omaha. I’ll gladly take the pot right there with the nuts if someone folds.

And that’s pretty much it.

Things I want to learn about Omaha:

How strong of a hand you need to bet. Often times I’ll be sitting there with 2 pair on a semi scary board and wonder if I should bet it. Even with set’s sometimes I feel like I may already be beaten. But I wonder if it is profitable to bet TPTK with limited opponents seeing the flop. For this reason I generally end up check / calling with whatever and end up betting the absolute nuts, which clearly isn’t optimal.

When is check raising the best play. Surely check-raising has its place in Omaha, but I rarely see it. I suppose if you flop the nuts but they are vulnerable to draw outs and are in early position (ie flop top set on a board of 7s8dKs) you may consider check - raising to limit the pot odds someone would have to chase. That is if you are sure that someone will indeed bet.

What hand requirements I need preflop. Not only do I need to learn what I need to play, I need to learn when I should be raising or calling preflop with them. It seems that some hold’em tactics carry over here, but I’m not clear on what you need. Like, in hold’em, generally, if you have a drawing hand like JTs or 66, you want to have a few limpers in the pot with you to give you the correct odds to see a flop and hit it hard. If you have a hand like QQ or AK, you want to limit the number of people seeing the flop to out draw you. Now in Omaha, if you are sitting there with 6789, I think you want to see a flop, but I’m not sure. Maybe that’s a folding hand unless it’s a family pot situation. I really don’t know. How about a hand like AKJT single suited? Is that a hand to be raising or calling with preflop? It seems that most people will raise with AAxx or KKxx in their hand, so I’ve copied them. What they do after the preflop raise is make their continuation bet hoping that their AA is still the best hand, but that seems pretty ignorant seeing as how 2 pair or better can be made so easily.

And much more.

I doubt I’ll ever become a pro Omaha player, but it would be nice to be somewhat proficient in a different form of poker, and not just another twenty something no limit hold’em player cause I saws it on the TV.

And just to show you how bad I truly am, here is a hand that basically took me out of the last MTT I played (was 3rd in chips at the time). And I know how hard it is to read Omaha hands so I’ll just post it straight up.

Seat 1: RikkiDee (19365 in chips)
Seat 2: dcc00 (17990 in chips)
Seat 3: RedHeadedIan (14685 in chips)
Seat 4: Tre Dog (1185 in chips)
Seat 5: *VD* (2510 in chips)
Seat 6: LMNB (8823 in chips)
Seat 7: zenodro11 (10600 in chips)
Seat 8: SHOO_SHINE (23558 in chips)
Seat 9: vgr926 (12740 in chips)
RedHeadedIan: posts small blind 200
Tre Dog: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Jh Qh Jc 9s]
*VD*: folds
LMNB: folds
zenodro11: calls 400
SHOO_SHINE: calls 400
vgr926: folds
RikkiDee: calls 400
dcc00: folds
RedHeadedIan: calls 200
Tre Dog: raises 785 to 1185 and is all-in
zenodro11: calls 785
SHOO_SHINE: calls 785
RikkiDee: calls 785
RedHeadedIan: calls 785
*** FLOP *** [4h 9d Th]
RedHeadedIan: checks
zenodro11: checks
SHOO_SHINE: checks
RikkiDee: bets 3600
RedHeadedIan: calls 3600
zenodro11: folds
SHOO_SHINE: folds
*** TURN *** [4h 9d Th] [6d]
RedHeadedIan: bets 9900 and is all-in
RikkiDee: calls 9900
*** RIVER *** [4h 9d Th 6d] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RedHeadedIan: shows [Kh 8h 4d 7c] (a straight, Six to Ten)
RikkiDee: shows [Jh Qh Jc 9s] (a pair of Jacks)
RedHeadedIan collected 27000 from side pot
Tre Dog: shows [Ks Ah Ad 2d] (a flush, Ace high)
Tre Dog collected 5925 from main pot

Now I bet there on the button with what would normally be 15 outs (open ended with a flush draw) and I may have the best hand with the JJ at this point. So in my stupid little brain, that bet makes sense, but who knows. The other problem is that anyone calling me will have the nut flush draw and my flush will be void, which is excellent. When the 6 comes on the turn, it looks meaningless to me, I don’t even see the possible straight. And since this opponent check/called me on the flop then went all in for a big bet on the turn I imagined that he was making a move with a draw, and since I still may have had the best hand / draw, I called. Clearly I was wrong. And that’s the thing about this game, you have to know what hand is the nuts, cause that is what you are up against if someone is betting.

Some day I’ll learn.

Play poker, Quit Work and Sleep Till Noon

The title of today's post is brought to you by the book of the same name... I should get it.

So things are going pretty good so far - other than the slimy boredom that I get from sleeping in and sitting at a computer all day by myself. I suppose it’s not much different than my old office jobs other than I don’t have to shower, which is a plus.

So I've been doing this for 5 days now, and while the results so far are obviously not a strong indicator as to my future success, I'm pretty pleased with my 5 day total (+$848). Which is a bit shy of my goal of $200/day, but I've been fooling around with the 6 table Sit&Go's too much to realize my true profits.

Speaking of those Sit&Go's, I had my best session of 6 last night. It even impressed me, which is hard to do given my huge poker ego. It was 6 $10 buyin 9 person tables, and I cashed in every one. Placed 1st twice, 2nd three times and 3rd once. Of course I should have probably gotten first in at least 4 if not 5, but thats what I always say when I get 2nd, but it was more true this time since I had to end up playing 3-4 people heads up simultaneously, which definitely was –EV. And this morning I played 6 more and got first in 3, and didn’t cash in any of the others. I think I get too carried away with stealing blinds in these things, especially when they are low. It’s all that Harrington’s fault – him and his damn M ratings. I also sprinkled some $20/$30 tables into the mix and did reasonably well, didn’t get blown away so I think if I continue to do this I’ll do it at a higher level since I really don’t feel the skill level is any different until you get to about the $50-$100 buy in games, which I have dabbled in with less success.

But I need to play more cash games. Since I’ve been hovering around the $2k bankroll status I’ve jumped up to the 1/2 NL games and have had continued success. At this point I would like to highlight RikkiDee’s Hand of the Day™

It was at a particularly wild table where these two maniacs and a supreme calling station were creating just massive pots every hand with terrible hands. I decided to take the ultra conservative route and play supersolid/tight, since I’ve been burned many times against maniacs when I start to dabble in less than stellar hands.

And keep in mind that when I played this hand I told myself that it would be my last for the night because I had to go out and get ready.

Table 'Garumna III' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: RikkiDee ($286.75 in chips) <--- The Man
Seat 2: tralph85 ($112.70 in chips) <--- The Maniac
Seat 3: Heaven Cloud ($167.40 in chips)
Seat 4: slinger33 ($75.45 in chips)
Seat 5: 1337 smoker ($78.05 in chips)
tralph85: posts small blind $1
Heaven Cloud: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [7c 9h]
slinger33: folds
1337 smoker: calls $2
RikkiDee: calls $2

Usually wouldn’t limp in with this hand, but I knew it would be my last

tralph85: raises $6 to $8

Big raise from the SB maniac, could mean anything

Heaven Cloud: folds

1337 smoker: folds

RikkiDee: calls $6

Weak call I know, but I couldn’t let up the opportunity heads up against the maniac, and its my last hand give me a fucking break.

*** FLOP *** [9c 2s As]

tralph85: checks

After his check I’m very happy with my hand, since every time he had checked before he was very weak, he bet almost every flop especially after taking the preflop raise. It is possible that he is slow playing a monster (ie trip aces?) but generally this check means weakness. Besides, I can find out later with a reraise.

RikkiDee: checks

I check to induce his bluff on the turn

*** TURN *** [9c 2s As] [8d]

tralph85: bets $6
RikkiDee: raises $12 to $18

Looking back I probably should have just called if I truly did think I was ahead (so he can bluff the river), but I was worried about him drawing out on the river if he has something like KQ and hits.

tralph85: calls $12

His call now tells me he may have a mid pocket pair since fake slowplays don't work on fishes, I’m no longer happy. His call also tells me he does not have a monster.

*** RIVER *** [9c 2s As 8d] [3d]

tralph85: bets $10

At this point he bets into me on the river, and unless he has 45 (I’m joking) his bet makes no sense, even if that 3 helped him somehow he should expect me to bet the river since I just reraised him on the turn. This is the classic “weak lead” on the river to avoid a reraise. Now Double A’s has posted a ton on weak leads on the river. Some really good players use them to induce the type of bluff I am about to pull off, but since in this situation I cannot give my opponent credit for this type of super savvy move, so I’m going to assume what it usually means, that he is super weak.

RikkiDee: raises $70 to $80

I have to raise here since I am pretty sure that he has some trash like TT JJ and if I call I’ll obviously be beat, so I’ll break out the big bat and put him all in. It’s a risky move, one I will almost never use but since I had such a tight image (well hopefully they had been watching) I should be able to pull this off from time to time. If had just checked I would have checked it down, but that weak lead screamed too much weakness. He doesn’t want a reraise? Well you are getting one! He took his sweet time and layed down what he said was AQ but I’ve seen him call much worse.

tralph85 has timed out
tralph85: folds
tralph85 is sitting out
RikkiDee collected $74 from pot
RikkiDee is sitting out
RikkiDee: shows [7c 9h] (a pair of Nines)
RikkiDee said, "got u back"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $76 | Rake $2
Board [9c 2s As 8d 3d]

I probably shouldn’t be so reckless and of course I show the bluff even though I’m not even playing any more, kind of a dumb/pointless move I guess, but he had shown me a lot of bluffs when I was way ahead so I felt it right to balance out the universe by showing it. That is if he truly did lay down the winner, he may of just had an 8 – not unreasonable by any means.

So there we have it, RikkiDee’s (long winded) Hand of the Day™. Don’t worry it’s not really going to be every day I’ll do this.

Letting it go

I'm going to be the first poker blogger that admits to being a donkey. I'm going to do it on a regular basis since I make so many donktified plays. But I imagine if anyone is reading, they would rather read about my bad plays than what I consider to be my good plays. Good plays are ambiguous, bad plays are universally identified.

So here I am, late in the monster 180 person “sit & go” that stars puts on. I’ve been enjoying these of late and can see myself winning one soon as I’ve put up some good numbers so far, but no wins. But this tourney wouldn’t be that win.

(antes and stuff edited out)

(100/200) - 2005/11/16 - 13:37:16 (ET)
Table '15189691 16' Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: JokerDK123 (13841 in chips)
Seat 2: overton (3450 in chips)
Seat 3: BillyGoatGrf (4210 in chips)
Seat 4: RikkiDee (3475 in chips)
Seat 5: lilprog (3246 in chips)
Seat 6: MoreCowbell9 (2160 in chips)
Seat 7: adabj (11890 in chips)
Seat 8: gallo16 (5765 in chips)
adabj: posts small blind 100
gallo16: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qd Qc]
JokerDK123 said, "nh"
JokerDK123: folds
overton: folds
adabj said, "ty"
BillyGoatGrf: folds
RikkiDee: raises 400 to 600
lilprog: folds
MoreCowbell9: folds
adabj: folds
gallo16: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [Ks 8h Kh]
gallo16: bets 400
RikkiDee: calls 400
*** TURN *** [Ks 8h Kh] [3c]
gallo16: bets 800
RikkiDee: raises 1650 to 2450 and is all-in
gallo16: calls 1650
RikkiDee said, "jkadrsf"
RikkiDee said, "]aksj;dlfhask;df;etj]opwe tkerg"

(this is my way of saying, "nice hand")

*** RIVER *** [Ks 8h Kh 3c] [4h]
RikkiDee said, "adgl;qdflkasdg"
RikkiDee said, "adfgjkladfj"
RikkiDee said, "l;adf"
RikkiDee said, "jkl;kl"
RikkiDee said, "["
RikkiDee said, "jl;"
RikkiDee said, "jl;asdas"
RikkiDee said, "jl;kasdg"
RikkiDee said, "jl;;JL"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
gallo16: shows [Kd 9c] (three of a kind, Kings)
RikkiDee: shows [Qd Qc] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
gallo16 collected 7200 from pot
RikkiDee [observer] said, "i hate you"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7200 | Rake 0
Board [Ks 8h Kh 3c 4h]

So that’s that.

Can I explain myself though? Ok, heres the thing, any time someone bets into me after I took the lead preflop, I’m going to be suspicious. In fact almost 90% of the time I take that to be sign of extreme weakness and I will never put you on a good hand if you do that to me. So when this guy calls my preflop raise from the BB and bets into me when the flop comes K8K, I’m never in a million years going to give him credit for a king, since I will always suspect they would check raise/call me with a king in hand. So I just call, thinking in my head I’m way ahead and want him to put more money in this pot. I reraise him on the turn to hopefully get him to call with an 8 or something like TT. Judging by my reaction in text I wasn’t very happy at the time. I guess this goes with the territory of playing 6 tables at once, as I may have been able to get away from this hand if I had been watching how he played.

Moral of the story? Never be convinced that you have someone beat.

Oh, another moral of the story is that a good way to get me all in if you hit trips on a paired board is to bet into me. I think that’s a pretty interesting though, if he had played the trip kings by check/raising or check/calling I would have been more apt to put him on a king and possibly folded. So rather than playing the king in a typical fashion, play it in a weird one, hoping I’ll misread it and you’ll get all my chips. It’s a good thing to realize that you can be outplayed if someone knows your style.

3rd moral of the story is that I’m a spaz and can’t stand losing a tourney, although that’s not much of a moral.

Enjoying my tourneys

Spent the last two days playing 6 sit & go's at once on stars. I moved up to the big $10 tables and have continued to show a profit. Although I'm not really in it for the profit at this point, mostly just fun, the profit obviously is nice. I threw in a few $20/$30 tables in the mix but didn't do that well. Even though 1-2 trials isn't much of a sample size, I can tell I'll need more concentration on the higher buy in games.

I just completed my best run of 6. Playing 4 - 9 person tables and 2 - 18 person tables. I got 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th on the 9 man tables and got 4th in both the 18 person tourneys, which is really disappointing since I was chip leader on both tables going into the final 5, a bunch of suckouts ensued ending with this gem where I ended up sucking out and still losing.

Seat 3: dmoney424 (3520 in chips)
Seat 4: CapnGunner (1210 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (9095 in chips)
Seat 9: RoJo8 (13175 in chips)
dmoney424: posts the ante 25
CapnGunner: posts the ante 25
RikkiDee: posts the ante 25
RoJo8: posts the ante 25
RoJo8: posts small blind 100
dmoney424: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [6c 7c]
CapnGunner: folds
RikkiDee: calls 200
RoJo8: calls 100
dmoney424: checks
*** FLOP *** [5h Ad 4c]
RoJo8: checks
dmoney424: checks
RikkiDee: bets 500
RoJo8: calls 500
dmoney424: folds
*** TURN *** [5h Ad 4c] [4d]
RoJo8: checks
RikkiDee: checks
*** RIVER *** [5h Ad 4c 4d] [8h]
RoJo8: bets 800
RikkiDee: raises 2200 to 3000
RoJo8: raises 2200 to 5200
RikkiDee: raises 3170 to 8370 and is all-in
RoJo8: calls 3170
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [6c 7c] (a straight, Four to Eight)
RoJo8: shows [4h As] (a full house, Fours full of Aces)
RikkiDee said, "hah"
RoJo8 collected 18440 from pot

I am fully aware of the fact that when the board is paired your straight/flush may not be good, and have been burned on it many times before, and I would usually just call his reraise. But against this opponent, it was very possible that he was playing something as weak as an ace or maybe a 4 like this. He had a VPIP > 70% according to my newly installed poker tracker, and was overplaying the shit out of everything, so I truly thought my straight was good, oh well even fish can get monsters.

One of the best hands I had was this one, where I had the semi-dream scenario of holding KK on the 2nd hand of a low buyin tourneys where the fish are easily caught.

Table '15198346 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: CakeBatter (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Hustler923 (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: msgolfer (1480 in chips)
Seat 4: NimCross (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: snakecheck (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: beachlife (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: BigNards84 (1530 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: kuivabo (1500 in chips)
msgolfer: posts small blind 10
NimCross: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ks Kd]
BigNards84 is connected
snakecheck: folds
beachlife: raises 40 to 60
BigNards84: folds
RikkiDee: raises 240 to 300
kuivabo: folds
CakeBatter: folds
Hustler923: folds
msgolfer: folds
NimCross: folds
beachlife: raises 400 to 700
RikkiDee said, "crap"
RikkiDee said, "i cant fold em"

(for the record I've never folded KK preflop, and I would almost never give my opponent credit for them especially in a $10 game, but his betting was way too suspicious, I almost did it, well not really)

Hustler923 said, "go got it"
RikkiDee: raises 800 to 1500 and is all-in
BigNards84 is disconnected
beachlife: calls 800 and is all-in
RikkiDee said, "damn it"
RikkiDee said, "i knew it"
*** FLOP *** [8h 8s 6d]
*** TURN *** [8h 8s 6d] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [8h 8s 6d Kc] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
beachlife: shows [As Ah] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
RikkiDee: shows [Ks Kd] (four of a kind, Kings)
Hustler923 said, "wow"
RikkiDee said, "hahaha"
RikkiDee collected 3030 from pot
msgolfer said, "wow"
RikkiDee said, "running quads"
RikkiDee said, "not bad"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3030 | Rake 0
Board [8h 8s 6d Kc Kh]

I'll take it I guess, and as a lesson that aces can happen. I still can't imagine folding in that situation, and calling is clearly just stupid. I'll take the chance that I'm against aces, surely it will pay off in the long run for all the times they have queens, AKs, jacks etc...

Oh I went on to win that tourney, can't win without at least one suckout right?

Fun Times

A Fun thing I've been doing as of late to train myself for multi-tabling is playing a bunch of little $5 sit & go's at a time. So far I've been able to semi-sucessfully do 6 tables at once. I've done 3 runs of 6 tourneys each. My results are as follows:

1st - 2
2nd - 5
3rd - 2

Nothing spectacular, actually its pretty mediocre, but at least its a profit. I imagine part of the problem is that I'm playing $5 tourneys, where the play is less than stellar and I havn't adjusted to their shitty play. Logic should dictate that I would do better against the $5 crowd than against my regular $30 crowd naturally, but their play is just too erratic for me to adjust playing 6 at once. I should only improve with time.

Anyways, it's something fun I've been doing and it is quite an experience so I would recommend giving it a shot sometime as it's only a $30 investment. The funniest thing is that these $5 games start so quickly that the problem is joining them, you actually have to be really quick. Ahh fish.

Maybe someday I will be able to do 6 $30 tables at once, if I show a profit on the $5 I may start to move up in stakes here since its a pretty quick way to make a few bucks if you can.

An actual advantage for me is that it forces me to play the sexy tight/solid/aggressive style that I always think I am, and not get bored and start to make moves and chase dumbass draws and such, which are 90% of where my losses come from.

Check calling has its place

When I was first learning NL hold-em, the mantra that I continuously read was "if your hand is good enough for a call, it is good enough for a raise". Which is true, very true. And if you were playing only one hand against someone for the rest of your life, that would be the optimal play for sure. Check-calling is the play of the weak.

But after many experiments, I feel that check-calling has a lot of merit that is missed by the "raise or fold" methodology - mostly against aggressive players.

It goes without saying that slow playing very strong hands is an effective play against aggressive player, but what about hands like top or mid pair? Can they be "slow played"? Typically no; but against the right opponent yes. If you are heads up with an aggressive player, and you've hit something like top pair or 2nd pair on a relatively non threatening flop (ie. you have JT and flop is KT5 rainbow) it may be profitable to "slow play" that pair of tens. What I did for a long time is bet those pair of tens, to make him pay for a possible draw or overcard, but the problem with that is that he will fold when he has nothing, and call / raise when you are beat. By check-calling, you will loose the ability to know exactly what he has by not defining your hand, but you may induce a bluff. If you feel that your check will induce a bluff more often then not based on your experience against this opponent, then it becomes profitable. Many mid-stakes aggressive players will take one stab at a pot but check the turn when called, rarely will they take a 2^nd stab unless they are very aggressive. If they take that 2^nd stab at the pot, you can then reassess the hand, and perhaps he does have the king he is representing. Alternatively, some very aggressive players read check-calls as so weak that they will fire a 2^nd shell at the pot as a bluff, and you can end up taking down massive pots (with non massive hands) just by inducing bluffs – you can usually tell because the bets on each street become so large and unusual it just screams like they are buying the pot. I’m not saying this play is optimal, but it has its place, and is a good way to mix up your game to those who are attentive. Clearly top pair is a better candidate for this move, but against the right opponent, 2^nd pair can work, depending on what the top card is. For instance, if there is an ace on board and you have 2^nd pair, and Mr. Aggression didn’t raise preflop, it is may be likely that he is bluffing, since most really aggressive players (the type that will bet any time they are checked to) raise with an ace preflop, especially with position. I have to be careful with this play though, as check-calling is non-optimal. If the board is slightly threatening, you don’t want to give Mr. Any-Two-Will-Do a free card to draw out on you, make sure to check-raise in that instance to make them pay for a draw.

Let your opponent make the move

In tournaments especially, but also applicable in cash games, you must allow room in your bets to allow your opponent to make a move on you. You must allow them to try and outhink themselves to force them to make a mistake. I'll start with an example, then elaborate.

Here I am playing a $20 buyin 180 person tourney, we are down to about the last 50 people.

Seat 1: bellakitty (1605 in chips)
Seat 2: big kahuna52 (6694 in chips)
Seat 3: RikkiDee (5205 in chips)
Seat 4: gismo2kr (9320 in chips)
Seat 6: treydog333 (4030 in chips)
Seat 7: Taffy7 (5405 in chips)
Seat 8: AVENGINGLOKI (7962 in chips)
Seat 9: PutU2TheTest (8445 in chips)
gismo2kr: posts small blind 75
treydog333: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ks Kh]
Taffy7: folds
AVENGINGLOKI: folds
PutU2TheTest: folds
bellakitty: calls 150
big kahuna52: calls 150
RikkiDee: raises 650 to 800

Here I make what I consider the optimal play. I'm on the button with kings, but with 2 limpers already I'm not taking any chances. But often times, when you make this type of raise after a few limpers, people start to think, is he stealing? I made sure my raise wasn't big enough to visually pot commit me, and if the big stack in the blinds decides to make a move, they can invision me folding if they indeed put me on a steal.

gismo2kr: folds
treydog333: folds
bellakitty: folds
big kahuna52: calls 650
*** FLOP *** [2s Ts 2h]

After one caller from the 2nd limper, I'm clearly not worried about any hands he may have. With TT or AA he surly would have raised preflop, and there is no way he has a 2. Only thing I'm marginally concerned with is a spade draw, but that is pretty unlikely. So it is pretty tempting to check here, and thats not a bad play, but it is kind of suspicious as well you may see an ace on the turn and regret your decision. So I like betting here, but how much? Well there are a few options. You could bet the minimum, hoping he will interpret it as weakness and bluff you, bet 1/2 to 2/3 the pot - which is the standard continuation bet I had been making this tournament, or you could go all in, which is an overbet at this point, hoping that he will interpret your overbet as weakness and call with a weak holding himself.

Now there a few things I don't like about these bets. With the minimum bet, if he indeed does have spades, then you are giving him the proper odds to call. If you overbet he may not have anything, even ace high to call you with and you lose that opportunity to make more on this pot. And I see this play all the time, the overbet with a very strong hand, hoping that it will be called by someone who thinks you are weak. When it works, you are a genius, but with a flop of 2T2, its highly doubtfull that they have anything to call you with. Heres what I like, bet enough so they have the opportunity to reraise you. Once the pot gets big, people get wierd. When they are faced with your 1/2 pot bet, and they still have the opportunity to reraise you, a lot of fish will get too stubborn with their hand and imagine that one final reraise will somehow get you to fold (usually they have no concept of pot odds, which works for me). You have to put that bluff in their hands. If they fold, you wern't making money on this pot anyways. If they see you have chips left, they'll start imagining, "well maybe this guy has been stealing all along, he can't call a reraise, and I've already put so much in this pot", and they reraise all in. I can't tell you how many times this has worked for me, especially when you have been betting just like someone would bet if they were stealing. Big pairs on the button is one of the best places to do this with, as its a natural stealing position. If its folded to you on the button, and you have QQ, throw an occassional 4-5xBB raise in there, as long as you and your opponent are deep stacked, they will make this play back at you especially if you have had a history of blind thefts recently. The key is to make your bets large enough so they look like a steal, but small enough that they don't represent a super large portion of your chips in which a reraise would force you to call with any 2 cards anyways. Never underestimate the stubborness of players, they want to make plays at you, let them. And it never hurts to delay a bit before you make any of these plays, people still read that as weakness for some reason.


big kahuna52: checks

(big delay)

RikkiDee: bets 1500
big kahuna52: raises 1500 to 5894 and is all-in

(insta call)

RikkiDee: calls 2905 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [2s Ts 2h] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [2s Ts 2h 6h] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
big kahuna52: shows [Kd Qc] (two pair, Tens and Deuces)
RikkiDee: shows [Ks Kh] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
RikkiDee collected 8785 from pot

Boo ya.

I mean, on paper, it looks pretty standard, you raise with kings and bet the flop blah blah blah. But there a lot of ways to play this hand that won't allow you to double up. It is quite suprising sometimes how people read so much into bets that they completely miss what is truly happening. I'm sure my opponent in this case went through a whole heap of mind bending to find an answer to justify his check raise, when if he stood back and realized that I am indeed representing a big hand, he can fold and tell himself not to get involved with KQo ever again. Since this seems to be a common thread in players in online tournaments that I play, I'll stick to my straight up play and let them make up their own story to "outplay me".

Early rounds in tournaments

Playing the early rounds in tournaments / sit & go's can be one of the most difficult and frustrating experiences in poker. It also offers one of the most unique poker experiences, where hands get overplayed to shit and terrible play is rampant.

One of the reasons I feel that bad play is so common, is due to the simple fact that bad play is expected in early rounds and therefore people will adjust their regular game to their preconceived notions about others bad play. Confused? So am I, but bear with me, I have some sort of point.

Ok say its within the first 10 hands of a tourney, the blinds are still extremely low and you've already witnessed a few big pots being taken down by 2nd pair and such.

You pick up AK in mid position. You raise and get just 1 caller from the big blind who has shown a lot of loose tendencies. The flop comes K95 rainbow and he checks to you - you make a standard continuation bet and to your surprise he re-raises you all in. Now, at this point his all in is a supreme overbet, and you go through your standard poker logic as to what he could have to make this play. Your first thought is that his over bet represents a weak holding - possibly a king and you are way ahead. And since you've seen him play a lot of pots, combined with the fact that it’s early and people are seemingly overplaying everything, it would make a strong case that your AK is good. You make the call and he flips over 55 for the set and you are first out of the tournament going out just top pair after calling a massive re-raise.

My point? Sure, early in tournaments people overplay hands, chase like mother fuckers and suckout like no tomorrow, but you can’t assume that’s what they are always doing. I know, it’s extremely hard to lay down top pair with AK, especially on a non descript board, but do you really want to put your entire tournament at risk to catch a weak hand/bluff? You really don’t know who you are playing against, and despite your best observations, you can’t get a sense of your opponents after 10 hands. Now, I’m not saying I would laydown that hand, certainly trips are the only thing you fear, and you should take that chance to double up when you think you have a high percentage of being ahead, but when it comes down to more marginal decisions, it may not be worth it to put too much weight on your early game “reads”. I cant tell you the number times I’ve played QQ early tournament, seen a flop of 952 and lost all my chips to a set, overpair or turn/river suckout. It's real easy to come up with scenarios that would merit your opponent doing whatever play you are imagining, but the fact is, you have to respect their raises early game, even if you just saw them call to the river with pocket 2s unimproved. Better wait for an extremely strong hand, close to the nuts to call a massive reraise early game, as it’s just not worth it to be out that early, without giving yourself a chance. Yes it stings laying down top pair to someone who reraised all in with 2nd pair, but just keep a level head, isolate the maniac and try to get his chips before someone else does later on. I guess I could have avoided this whole post by saying:

Early in a tournament, play the cards, not the player.

*Edit*
During the writing of this post, I ate my own words.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qd Tc]
lewis5199: folds
RGow8: folds
cambria999: calls 50
twelvem: folds
dogpuppy: calls 50
PacoML: folds
RikkiDee: calls 50
wstr8man: calls 25
mcola66: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qc Td Ks]
wstr8man: bets 100
mcola66: raises 250 to 350
cambria999: folds
dogpuppy: folds
RikkiDee: raises 450 to 800
wstr8man: folds
mcola66: calls 450

(early in a tournament, this call by him tells me that he does not have the straight, I should be good. 99% of players would go all in at this point with a made straight.)

*** TURN *** [Qc Td Ks] [5d]
mcola66: bets 1510 and is all-in

(this type of bet always arouses my suspicions. Why not reraise me on the flop? Surely that 5 didn't help you, usually this bet means that they picked up a draw of some sort, in this case a diamond flush draw. I'm calling)

RikkiDee: calls 1510
*** RIVER *** [Qc Td Ks 5d] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mcola66: shows [5s Kh] (two pair, Kings and Fives)

(Hopeless play, but I guess I deserve it for calling, have to respect big bets no matter what)

RikkiDee: shows [Qd Tc] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
mcola66 collected 4970 from pot

The dreaded "one more hand" syndrome

Just a quickie post from todays session, since I'm new at this poker blogging thing.

After playing for an hour or so, with my girlfriend on my back begging me to leave, I told her that I would play untill I went above $140 or below $120. I managed to do so hitting a set and scoring a nice pot the previous hand and was ready to leave with my $150 when the very next hand....

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qd Qc]

Ok, one more hand baby please?

I'll let the hand history speak for itself.
Villan: raises $5 to $6
RikkiDee: raises $9 to $15

(I was in the BB, he was in SB and his oversized raise was not
uncommon with mediocre hands, I had to be ahead and wanted him to pay)

3viL81: folds
Villan: raises $26 to $41

(Uh oh, well, he is now repping a strong hand, but I'm
leaving next hand so whatever lets gamble)

RikkiDee: raises $26 to $67
Villan: calls $10.85 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [9d 6d Th]
*** TURN *** [9d 6d Th] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [9d 6d Th 9c] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villan: shows [3h 9h] (four of a kind, Nines)
RikkiDee: mucks hand
RikkiDee is sitting out
Villan collected $102.70 from pot

And I am once again a victim to the dreaded last hand syndrome. Gotta love the all in 93s in a cash game.

The Experiment Begins

So I'm doing it.

Yea, I said it.

I'm making the leap - the dream of every low limit poker player - I'm going pro.

Well maybe its not as dramatic as all that, but it certainly is a big step here in my otherwise insignificant life.

Ok, lets take a few steps back, you know, lets get to know each other. Spend some quality "cuddle time" together and lets get an understanding as to what has brought me to this decision.

Alright lets back up 9 months.

It was mid-march, 2005. Life had put me in a particularily uneventful funk to which I was not resisting. I was in my last semester of school, barely scraping by (you can read all about it here - my other blog) and did what any rational young man would do, I started gambling.

The poker bug hit me hard and fast. I didn't play much up until late 2004 where my friends and I started having a regular texas holdem night for a $5 buyin tournament. No one knew what they were doing including myself, but it was all good fun. After a few weeks of this I decided to check out the online poker scene. It is here where I distinctly remember the moment where I knew I would be hooked for a while. I was playing on the lowly $0.05/$0.10 NL tables at Bet Holdem with the leftover money I had from an online sporting book after the NFL season had ended (just about $100). This must have been one of my first 100 hands.

(In my best Vince Van Patten voice) "I picked up the mother of all hands, the weapons of mass destruction, pocket aces" in a 6 handed game. I think this was the first time I had ever been dealt pocket aces in my life, online or at a home game. At this time in my poker career, I felt that pocket aces were essentially a free win, I had never seen them lose and treated them as unstoppable juggernauts. I can't remember if I raised preflop (probabbly not, that concept was foreign to me at this point) or not but I do know that I had at least 4 people seeing the flop with me (who cares how many opponents right? ITS POCKET ACES). I had about 2-3 people watching me play online as they were as curious as I was. When the flop came Queen high, everyone started to chant, "Go all in!". I Was so excited, thinking that there was no way I was beat, so I went all in, clearly the best way to maximize my profits right? I mean the pot was probabbly about $0.50 and I had at least $10 in chips. I remember getting two callers and laughing at them in my mind when they called, thinking they are obviously beat. Well in this case, they were, they both called with just the top pair of queens and I raked in the massive $25 pot.

I gloated all day. $25 bucks was a massive win. I went out for breakfast and picked up my friends tab's, I was the man.

And thats all it took. One hand.

I continued to play at the micro limits, getting my ass handed to me, and probabbly fishing it up real good for weeks. I had a lot of spare time, and am very comfortable spending an unhealthy amount of time in front of a computer screen. So I became an addict.

I continued to play on Bet Holdem, oblivious to the slew of perfectly viable and superiour competitors in the online poker biz, but I was having fun. I managed to widdle down my original $100 deposit to $0 in true donkey fashion, and went ahead and deposited another $100, convinced that my original losses were due to bad beats and the such. That deposit actually lasted a long while, and eventually I got it up to $1000 after months of play and a few limit increases. I peaked at the $0.50/$1.00 NL tables, when I lost pretty much my entire bankroll on a week or two of continuous losses. I was devastated, and ended up cashing out with about $100 left, my original deposit. But did I stop there? Obviously not.

Fast forward to today. About 10 poker books, thousands of hands of experience and thousands of bad beats later, I'm ready to make the aforementioned leap.

The leap being the one from playing poker as a part time pastime/hobby to a full time source of income. I've done the 9-5 thing, its not for me at this point in time in my life. I've just graduated from school and am not working for anyone. I'm also very aware of the various risks I am taking, but if it pays off I will be about 41.5x happier than if I had settled with any kind of "regular" employment.

At this point, I am very confident in my playing abilities. I'm no world class pro, but I know enough to play the percentages and slowly take the online game. My plan as of today is try this for one month. My goal is to average $200 a day, playing approximately 6-10 hours each day, at the $0.50/$1.00 NL tables, collecting deposit bonus' on various sites. I am starting with about $1500. I will move up in limits when the buyin to the table represents less than 5% of my total bankroll.

Example.

At the $0.50/$1.00 NL tables, the buyin is $100. With a bankroll of $1500 this represents about 6.6% of my bankroll. When I pass $2000 I will move up to the $1/$2 tables. Since I've been known to drop a buyin or two in a session, I don't want them to be too devastating to the old roll, so by having a buyin represent less than 10% of it, I can handle some decent swings. This strategy probabbly will change though since I havn't really ever done this before.

Certainly $0.50/$1.00 NL is not exactly professional credentials, but after playing there for the last 4-5 months or so, booking steady daily profits in the range of $50-$200, it will suffice for now.

So, I'm pretty excited. And if it doesn't work out, so be it, glad I gave it a shot. I have plenty of money to back me if I fail, so paying bills won't be a problem, at least in the short term.

Let the degenerate, waste of life begin.