Damn it feels good to be a gangster

Late last night I was up over $200 for the day and decided to play in a big buy in MTT for fun (not for profit since that is impossible). I loaded up Stars to see that there was a $50 double shootout starting in 10 minutes. Now I had never played a shootout, and barely even knew what they were, but I was intrigued, so I joined up.

A double shootout is basically two sit&go’s mashed together. They take 81 participants and put them at 9 separate tables. Then each table plays a mini sit&go, where only the winner goes on in the tournament. The 9 winners from each table makes it to the final table. The final table of 9 plays on to crown a winner. Each of the finalists gets in the money for the tournament, from 9th ($141) to 1st ($1200).

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be a huge fan of these or not since you basically have to win a $50 sit&go to get to the final table. Granted, you are guaranteed $141 once you reach the final table, but since you would have won $255 anyways by winning the original $50 sit&go, you are out equity unless you place 6th or above in the final table. But I was ready to play.

I folded my first 20 hands or so, not seeing much. Eventually in the BB hit top pair and made some cash off some chasing chump. Got my stack up to about 3k with random little hands here and there, and then I hit this lovely hand with blinds 50/100.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ac 7c]
lasagna*oka*: folds
RikkiDee: raises 200 to 300

(this raise is pretty loose for me from mid position, but why not? I'd been playing pretty tight)

galvan: folds
TBomber: folds
biscuit77: folds
oclakers: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Jd 4d 8c]
oclakers: checks
RikkiDee: checks

(no continuation bet here for me, this opponent is very loose and could have hit that flop, or missed it and still called, lets see the turn)

*** TURN *** [Jd 4d 8c] [4c]
oclakers: bets 400
RikkiDee: raises 600 to 1000
oclakers: raises 600 to 1600
RikkiDee: calls 600

(turn gives me the nut flush draw and he bets out at me, I figured that it could be a bluff at this point since I just checked the turn and decide to make a “delayed continuation bet” hoping he would fold, he didn’t and with the triple minimum reraise I knew I was in trouble, but since he only raised it 600 I should call to see if I hit)

*** RIVER *** [Jd 4d 8c 4c] [Qc]
oclakers: checks
RikkiDee: bets 990 and is all-in
oclakers: calls 990
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Ac 7c] (a flush, Ace high)
oclakers: shows [8h Js] (two pair, Jacks and Eights)
RikkiDee collected 5830 from pot

Told you he was loose, calling a preflop raise with J8o, but I sucked it out on the river with the ol’ backdoor flush. Now I’m at 5830 in chips and in first place. Winning this first table is now a strong possibility.

I then start to try and push the table around here and there, which has never worked out for me, but I do it anyways. Lets see the results of said pushing around.

oclakers: shows [Ac 4d] (a full house, Aces full of Fours)
RikkiDee: shows [7c 7d] (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
oclakers collected 2705 from pot

biscuit77: shows [Ks Kh] (three of a kind, Kings)
RikkiDee: shows [Tc As] (high card Ace)
biscuit77 collected 1758 from pot

RikkiDee: shows [9h 8h] (a flush, King high)
TBomber: shows [Ks Kc] (four of a kind, Kings)
TBomber collected 1762 from pot

RikkiDee: shows [Tc 2h] (two pair, Tens and Nines)
TBomber: shows [Jc Kh] (a straight, Nine to King)
TBomber collected 3648 from pot

RikkiDee: shows [6d 6h] (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
oclakers: shows [Kd Th] (a full house, Kings full of Sevens)
oclakers collected 3982 from pot

All of those were preflop all ins except the Tc 2h one, I at least had top pair when we got the money in before he sucked out. So much for the big stack. But somehow, someway I keep pumpin out funky ass shit like every single day, and I also manage to bring my stack back up to a respectable level, and eventually get heads up.

We start heads up with:
Seat 2: RikkiDee (5670 in chips)
Seat 8: oclakers (7830 in chips)

Blinds are 100/200 with 25 antes, so I’ve got some work to do. I find out early that this opponent is already willing to go all in preflop from his small blind, which always upsets me since it basically means I’m going to eventually have to call with something trashy like A7o and hoping to get lucky. But I end up dodging every all in confrontation and chip my way up to leader stealing pots here and there. I actually played really well this heads up match, which is rare since my opponent was the dreaded super loose and super aggressive player that I hate playing heads up. I end up chipping him all the way down to about a 5-1 lead, when we finally get all in preflop and it ends with this hand.

RikkiDee: shows [Ah 5s] (a pair of Fives)
oclakers: shows [4h 4c] (a pair of Fours)
RikkiDee collected 4020 from pot
RikkiDee said, "gg"

So I am off to the final table! Never thought I had a chance and here I am. For the final table, they reset all chip stacks and bring the blinds back down to 10/20. Since every place pays, I decide to play very tight and not make too many moves early, hoping that others would bust out. I can't be sure if the mindset of my opponents is "well I've already made the money, all in" or "I'm going to play tight as all hell trying to move up in the rankings". There are three bust outs before I even play a hand, so I’m pretty happy. I basically don’t play a big hand until mid game, where I pick up aces. Luckily I had just raised preflop 2 out of the last 3 hands, so I made my raise a bit bigger than usual. Well lets just watch what happened.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ad Ac]
bigott20: folds
RikkiDee: raises 300 to 400
dwgum16: raises 800 to 1200
nitsuj966: folds
wired_c4: folds
dabomb1637: folds
RikkiDee: raises 765 to 1965 and is all-in
dwgum16: calls 765
*** FLOP *** [9h 8d 2s]
*** TURN *** [9h 8d 2s] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [9h 8d 2s 8c] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Ad Ac] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
dwgum16: shows [Ks Kh] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
RikkiDee collected 4080 from pot

Oh the humanity. Obviously I can’t fault my opponent for putting me all in with KK, and am I glad I didn’t have QQ. But now I’m up to chip leader with 6 to play. Which means I am already guaranteed more than $255 which is the magical mark that makes this tournament more profitable than a regular $50 sit&go. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

But, being the dumbass who can’t learn a lesson about protecting a big stack that I am, I decide to push my opponents around again. This time I hit a flush draw and put my opponent all in, he called with top pair and I didn’t hit, so I’m back down to medium stack. I’m a genius.

With the blinds 100/200 and my stack hovering around 1500 with 5 players remaining, I am feeling the pressure to make a move. I havn’t made any all in moves yet so I decide to do it here, against the other short stack in the BB, who has been folding a lot, so I figure I have a good chance to steal the blinds here.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [2h Js]
dabomb1637: folds
bigott20: folds
RikkiDee: raises 1150 to 1350 and is all-in
dwgum16: folds
nitsuj966: calls 1115 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [4s 2s 6c]
*** TURN *** [4s 2s 6c] [3c]
RikkiDee said, "interesting call"
*** RIVER *** [4s 2s 6c 3c] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nitsuj966: shows [Th Qc] (a pair of Fours)
RikkiDee: shows [2h Js] (two pair, Fours and Deuces)
RikkiDee collected 2730 from pot

He calls me for all his stack with TQo, ok. Sure, I only had J2, but you gotta give me more credit than that. So with this lucky double up I manage to sneak my way into the final three. Chip count starting at:

Seat 5: bigott20 (4360 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (1990 in chips)
Seat 9: dwgum16 (7150 in chips)

In this tournament, only the final two paid anything really significant ($1200, $850), while third paid around $480. I was short stacked, and decided it was going to be first or third. I then pick up this hand.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Kd As]
dwgum16: folds
bigott20: raises 400 to 600
RikkiDee: raises 1590 to 2190 and is all-in
bigott20: calls 1590
*** FLOP *** [Js 8c 2d]
RikkiDee said, "ugh"
RikkiDee said, "gg"
*** TURN *** [Js 8c 2d] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Js 8c 2d 6s] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bigott20: shows [Ac 2c] (a pair of Deuces)
RikkiDee: shows [Kd As] (a pair of Kings)
RikkiDee collected 4455 from pot

Phew, lucky me. Again, I don’t blame him for raising with A2 from the SB, but to call my reraise is pretty bold, he wouldn’t be getting 2-1 odds, so his call really makes no sense. But since people are people, he can’t fold A2 and almost knocks me out. But now I’m in good shape, 2nd in chips with a fishy man who will call an all in with A2 in third, damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

After a few uncalled all-in’s by my opponent, the blinds are starting to creep up on my chip stack as well, as they had just gone up to 200/400. I feel it is necessary to start stealing some blinds as well, trying to keep up. So it is this hand that eventually ends me, but I would like to discuss how I could have avoided losing all my chips on this hand. I’ll start off by stating my hypothesis that it is not possible not to lose all my chips. Lets begin.

Lets start off with the chip stacks.

Seat 5: bigott20 (2270 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (3705 in chips)
Seat 9: dwgum16 (7525 in chips)

I have the lead on third but not by that much.

bigott20: posts the ante 25
RikkiDee: posts the ante 25
dwgum16: posts the ante 25
RikkiDee: posts small blind 200
dwgum16: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ah 8c]

I’m dealt A8o in the small blind, a raise is necessary if it is folded to me.

bigott20: folds

So it is folded to me, I must raise, but how much? I have to ask myself, what is the purpose of this raise? Is it to steal? Is it a value raise? Well, with A8o, out of position, I am more than happy stealing the blinds. If I get a call, and I don’t hit my ace (or even if I do) I’m going to be in trouble, so this is a stealing situation. A regular 3-4bb raise would pot commit me anyways if my opponent was to reraise me, so lets just go all in to maximize the chances of stealing the blinds.

RikkiDee: raises 3280 to 3680 and is all-in
dwgum16: calls 3280
RikkiDee said, "bah"
*** FLOP *** [8d 5s 3d]
*** TURN *** [8d 5s 3d] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [8d 5s 3d Js] [Qd]
RikkiDee said, "gg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Ah 8c] (a pair of Eights)
dwgum16: shows [Kc Ks] (a pair of Kings)
dwgum16 said, "vgg"
dwgum16 collected 7435 from pot

So he had kings, easy call. Now lets see how I could have avoided this.

If I raised 3bb up to 1200, he would do one of two things; raise me all in (most likely), or call (less likely). Once I raise to 1200 the pot becomes 125+200+400+1200 = 1925 and I am left with 2280. If he then reraises me all in the pot becomes 1925+2280=4205 and I am left with the decision to call getting just under 2-1 odds on my money. Since I have an ace, I am guaranteed to get at least 2-1 odds (unless he has aces) so I need to call. Now I could fold, choosing not to gamble and keep my 2280, but I order to win tournaments like these I think it is necessary to make profitable all in moves in order to win in the long run. But some could say he would only make this reraise if he has me substantially beat, which is true in this case, but the way this player played, he would probably do this with any pair or any good ace. Since it is a coinflip if he has a pair under eights, and I’m about a 2-1 underdog vs higher pairs and bigger aces, I think this call is pretty much right on. The question is just do I want to gamble on a coinflip? (I consider getting 2-1 odds when you are behind 2-1 a coinflip since you are being offered the correct odds). In this case I do. Of course all this is moot since I just went all in, but I’m just trying to justify the fact that no matter what raise I would have made, I would have been going all in anyways. And considering the fact that about 90% of the time I would just steal the blinds and antes, this is definitely a +EV play – it just didn’t work out this time.

So that’s that. Third place in a field of 81 players isn’t bad, actually it is pretty damn good for me. I enjoyed this double shootout a lot, and hopefully can join others when they are running. Too bad stars doesn’t run them often. The great thing about them is you get the chance to make it to a final table for real tournament cash, with a good chance of taking the whole thing down since the blinds and stacks are all reset, so there isn't the all in fest that plagues the big MTT final tables. Additionally, the blind levels are 15 minutes instead of the regular 10, and that is always a plus (for what is basically a sit&go).

I’ll take the $500 third place prize and take it as a lesson learned.

GG
Always good to change things up.

Status Check Please

One thing about playing poker full time is that I never know what the appropriate level of success is. I suppose if I wasn’t a petty man, I would just accept any reasonable stream of income as long as I can live comfortably. But I am a petty man. I need to have a gauge on my level of play. It is not enough for me to just be a winning player; I need to win more than anyone else. And without a standard to compare myself with I’m in the dark.

Ok so lets get some facts on the table. I started playing “professionally” on November 12th, 2005. It is now 37 days later, and my total income to date is $3977.18, which if my calculator is correct, boils down to a measly $107.49 a day – a far cry from my original starting goal of $200 a day. But not to fret, since I sort of just pulled that $200/day goal out of my own ass.

I started off really well – at the end of November I was up to $191.12/day. I figured I was well on my way to my goal and had nothing to worry about – that I had what the New Kids would refer to as “the right stuff”. Then a string of extreme losses hit me, and I was faced with a real decision – did I ever have the right stuff or was it all luck? I have since recovered from the early months catastrophic losses, and am hoping that it was simply a blip on the radar, nothing to worry about.

But how can one be sure? I mean the sample size here is so small with 37 days, that it is very hard to make any kind of reasonable conclusion as to the meaningfulness of my results. I mean, I think it is safe to say that I am a winning player. I’m not worried about that. But when it is my livelihood on the line, I need to know how much of a winner I am. This is why I need a standard to compare myself to. If there were a database of poker data available where I could simply enter my info into that would be pretty much ideal - I would be able to compare my win rates to others to see where I stand - even though I still wouldn’t be confident about the “long term”.

I suppose I should just be happy. I mean, I’m not losing money, isn’t that all that matters? Who cares if others could be making more than me right?

Well I for one do.

As a poker player, I always want to be improving my game. I consider myself to be above average, and am constantly trying to improve. I want to be making as much money as possible. I want to know that if I am not playing optimally, what I need to change to do so. If I had a means to compare myself to others, I could tell where I am at. I could determine by the difference between my winnings and others that I need a lot or a little improvement. If someone is making twice my hourly rate at the same levels that I play at, I need to know why.

But mostly I’m just glad I’ve calmed the storm of losses and retained my status of “winning player”. Lets just hope it wasn’t a random blip.

F is for FPP and thats good enough for me

So I’ve wrestled around with the idea of jumping around from site to site collecting monthy reload bonus (a la Scurvy) or simply just staying at Poker Stars for its reliability and my familiarity with the site, but also losing out on potential “bonii”. Now obviously saying “familiarity with the site” is kind of a weak reason to play at any site, since you can always learn the software. But since no other site has the features that I’ve come to love about Poker Stars, why would I want to become “familiar” with any other site?

It’s like if you have an average looking girlfriend who gives the best blowjobs, why would you consider switching?

If for nothing else, I would play on Poker Stars just for the easy to use and extremely informative hand histories. No other site comes close to the functionality of their hand history. The fact that you can actually see what cards they muck on the river is worth more than any signup bonus on the planet.

Quick example.

Say you have aces and you are playing on “brand x” poker site. You raise 4bb preflop and get a caller. With a flop of Q93 rainbow he check and calls your bet. With turn and river blanks, he continues to check call you right to the river, and when he calls your river bet his cards are mucked. You scoop the pot, but have no idea what he called with.

You are playing on Stars this time, with the same hand, aces. Coincidently the flop comes Q93, and this opponent check and calls you down to the river after two more blanks. He calls your river bet and mucks his hand. You scoop the pot and quickly check the hand history to see that he called you down to the river with 55, clearly a terrible play. You can now bet into him with confidence any time you have a remotely decent hand, even 2nd pair, knowing he isn’t going to fold anything, and gaining you a lot of extra bets along the way.

By knowing what your opponent is capable of calling with on the river and losing (as well as seeing how he plays certain types of hands), you gain an advantage so gargantuan in magnitude, a comparative reload bonus of $100 just doesn’t compare anymore. You can make your bets (were talking no limit here) so much more precise and educated, and in the long run it will pay off much more than a lousy bonus. Additionally, you will improve your own game, by being able to adjust your play to others, you can only get better. Naturally, it is a two way street when it comes to seeing mucked cards, as your opponents can now see what you are willing to call with, and can gain insight on your game. But as long as you feel you have a significant edge over your opponents to begin with (any winning player should feel they have this edge) the insight you gain exceeds theirs.

And the last reason I’m going to continue to play at Poker Stars are FPP points. Now I know a lot of sites have similar reward systems, but from what I’ve experienced FPP points are by far a superior system. I use them only for satellite tournaments – tournaments in which I would pay money for entry for anyways. How can you go wrong there?

Stars is just too good of a site not to play on, despite its lack of “bonii”. They are ever improving their software, and constantly advertising all over the place (meaning more dumbass fish to play with). If they ever go public I think I’ll have to invest some of my poker winnings in them, as I can’t see them losing ground to any other site any time soon.

Tournament strategy

Alright it’s been a while since a strategy / serious / good post, so lets try one shall we?

I’ve played over 500 sit&go’s in less than a month. This number is achieved by playing 6 at once multiple times a day. It’s an insane number, and when poker tracker informed me of it I couldn’t believe it myself, but it all added up.

Since these games pass by like cars on the street, I rarely have time to reflect on my game, since it is almost completely autopilot. The odd hand sticks out, but the way I play hands doesn’t change. Yes, I play the same hands the same way every time. Now to the seasoned pros out there reading this (and I’m sure Negreanu and Ivey have this blog as their homepage) you will quickly state that in order to be a successful poker player you can’t play every hand the same since people will catch on to your strategy and read you like a book. And guess what? I know that! But guess what else? It doesn’t matter! See, I’m only playing short $30 games. There isn’t much time for actual “poker” before the blinds become too much of a factor. Once they do, no amount of changing gears is going to really affect much. You can start limping with AQ and raising with 98s but I figure the overall net effect won’t be that much, since it really doesn’t make *that* much difference in long run EV. Additionally, I just can’t give credit for my opponents watching me that closely in these semi-low limits. I have evidence for this. One side-product of multi-tabling is you are forced to be patient and wait for hands since you can’t play marginal hands with much confidence. You end up having to throw them away in face of strength since you can’t obtain strong reads on your opponents. So it is not uncommon that I have a tourney where I don’t play even one hand for the first few levels. Even after 50 folded hands in a row, opponents rarely give me credit for a hand and I still get a lot of playback, which is fine for me, but it just says that opponents really aren’t watching you all that much.

What I find is more common, is opponents watch you for 5 hands or so. They remember what you did at most, 5 hands ago. If you’ve raised the past 3 hands (AK, QQ, TT) and you pick up AQ, you’re raise will be interpreted as a steal, guaranteed. If you’ve raised 4 in a row, I can guarantee you will receive an all in reraise from some idiot who “won’t allow you to bully the table anymore”. So I’m always careful to be aware of how often I’ve raised. If I’ve raised 3 out of 5 and pick up AJ in late position and the pot hasn’t been opened, I usually will just limp, since I don’t really like going to war with that hand, even if it is a favorite against random hands. The problem usually is that I can’t remember which tables I’ve been catching cards on. I’ll end up making a raise from late position with KQ and get major reraises and then realize my mistake. You simply aren’t allowed to raise often, even with good hands, don’t try it. Basically, your hands have to be getting progressively better for raising in order to stand up to the eventual all in you’ll face. Now if you like to gamble with hands like 99 vs an all in then be my guest and call, but I generally like to take the result of the tournament out of lady luck’s hands as much as possible, and will avoid calling all ins with marginal hands, even if I feel that I’m probably a 60% or more favorite, unless I’m offered good pot odds.

Since I’ve been playing 6 at once, I’ve really developed a system of playing, that I really don’t even think about, but am going to try and detail it here. Lets see how far I get. Most of this strategy is from Harrington’s books, which are just amazing guides for tournaments.

I have to simplify my decision making process a lot, and basically give up on a lot of marginal situations where it may be +EV to continue in the hand, but because of the blind aggression I would have to employ to make it EV I can’t follow through on it and end up folding.

There are basically 3 portions of a 9 person sit&go. The first portion are the first 3 rounds where the blinds are 10/20, 15/30 and 25/50. The second being where the blinds are from 50/100-100/200 where the field sizes and hand flexibility is limited. And the final portion being the final 4, whatever the blinds are.

1st portion
There is a lot of room for playing around if you are so inclined. I am not. I basically just sit and wait for very premium hands to play and hopefully double up when I do. Preflop I’m raising with AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ and that’s pretty much it. If it is folded to me in semi-late position I’ll start raising with KQ, AJ, 99, 88, 77. I limp with mostly any pair, KJ, QJ, JT and other lower suited connectors if there are a lot of people in the pot. Now this list is pretty standard, but it works for a reason. Early position I don’t want to be raising with medium strength hands since anyone who calls me will probably have me beat and I’ll be throwing money in a pot where I may be the underdog. I need to be able to make easy decisions post flop. Once the flop comes, if I am heads up after I raised preflop, I’ll bet the flop no matter what. If called I generally give up on the hand unless I improve down the road. If it’s a multiway pot, I’m betting top pair almost always unless the board is particularly scary and my kicker is weak (ie I have Qc4d and flop is QsJsTd). If someone bets into me when I have top pair, I’ll reraise almost always to see where I’m at and hopefully take it down there. If I face any real big raises I’ll usually drop the hand unless I have something close to the nuts. I’ll go all in if need be with a set on the flop, I’ll take my chances that someone has a good draw/TPTK/higher set. My main goals in the first portion are not to lose a lot of chips when I have a mediocre hand, and to try and double up by pushing my overpairs/2 pairs/sets hard. I avoid almost all all-in confrontations preflop unless I have aces or kings, I’ll take my chances there to double up. And that’s pretty much it. Usually if I’ve picked up a hand or two here I’ll be sitting at about 2-3k in chips after starting with 1.5k.

2nd portion.
Once the blinds get to 50/100, the game changes pretty dramatically. You aren’t getting a lot of the big implied odds to limp with a lot of the marginal hands people like to limp with, so there is a lot of heads up / 3 way raised pots that are contested. Here I continue my regular game, but start to raise a little more liberally as stealing the blinds is a decent result if you raise with A9o from the button. Additionally I start to bet pretty much any pair on the flop if I’m heads up, and 2nd pair if its three way. I’m almost never limping at this point in time, and I start to throw away really low pocket pairs. One thing people love to do is when there is a limper or two, is to go all in from the blinds, and you’ll be sitting there with 55 thinking what to do (hint: fold). It mostly depends on the cards, but I’ll either be sitting at around 3k here or really low under 1k. For some reason that is how it always works out. When I have under 10xbb I may take a few shots at the blinds with all-in’s with marginal hands like 77 and AT. My main goal is to make the money and that isn’t going to happen with 900 chips. I have to double up eventually, and if I steal the blinds along the way it only helps.

3rd portion.
Down to 4 opponents - the dynamic changes a lot. Everyone is trying to get to the final 3, including myself. There usually is one severely short stack that everyone is waiting for to drop out, or two semi short stacks battling for 3rd. Rarely is it a four way race, but it does happen. Here aggression can really pay off, as people are reluctant to put their tourney on the line before they are guaranteed cash. So if I’m the short stack with less than 8bb, I’m pushing with almost any 2 cards in the hopes of again stealing the blinds as well as getting lucky and doubling up. Sometimes I get carried away here stealing the blinds and people actually call with complete shit just to stop you. It is here that I feel my game has the most strength though since intricate reads and poker play on the flop isn’t as big as a factor. If I’m the big stack at this point I’m pretty much playing like the standard player, just waiting it out. It is always satisfying when multi-tabling to see you’ve made the money without even doing much. Once it’s down to three I am pretty damn aggressive, since I’ve made the money and really want to get either 1st or 3rd. So I’ll steal steal steal until someone picks up either a big hand or I do and someone plays back at me with nothing.

Ok so this guide turned out to be what I expected. An ambiguous clone of almost every other tournament guide that I’ve ever read. But these are the standard plays for a reason. They are sound mathematically. If someone beats this strategy they either got lucky, or you got unlucky. Really it is that simple. If you hit TPTK late game and someone slow played trips against you, there isn’t much you can do since you will be ahead way too many times to slow down and not get paid. In sit&go’s, luck is a massive factor. You have to push with hands that are +EV and if someone wakes up with a monster or sucks out on the flop, its part of the game. I’ve pretty much grown immune to going all in on the short stack with AQ, someone calling with QT and winning. It does not bother me anymore since all in confrontations are a must, and usually everyone involved is playing somewhat correctly. Just make statistically profitable moves and you’ll win in the long run.

Wow can I spout off anymore generic poker advice?

Fun with trips

Isn’t hitting trips from a pocket pair the most boner inducing moment in NL hold’em? Actually I think that flopping trips is in the top 5 of the most boner inducing things that exist on the planet. I swear if they could bottle that feeling of flopping trips there would be no need for Viagra. Maybe I’m just obsessed with saying boner inducing, or worse, boners themselves! Ok we’re getting off topic, or are we?

Ok so trips. Just gonna post 2 wicked ass trip hits from today’s session since they excited me so much – I have to preserve the euphoria via blog. One of these actually happened while I was writing this, try to guess which one! (Boner in bold)

Table '16550597 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: MWilliS (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: headhunterLI (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: RikkiDee (1480 in chips)
Seat 4: DeepRed2 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: powty (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: cOn_Swe (1530 in chips)
Seat 7: RF_Farmer (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: Pizzaman (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: LETITRIDE427 (1500 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 10
DeepRed2: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [7c 7h]
powty: folds
cOn_Swe: folds
RF_Farmer: calls 20
Pizzaman: folds
LETITRIDE427: calls 20
MWilliS: folds
headhunterLI: folds
RikkiDee: calls 10
DeepRed2: checks
*** FLOP *** [7s Ts Qh]
RikkiDee: checks
DeepRed2: checks
RF_Farmer: bets 20
LETITRIDE427: calls 20
RikkiDee: raises 60 to 80
DeepRed2: folds
RF_Farmer: calls 60
LETITRIDE427: calls 60
*** TURN *** [7s Ts Qh] [2h]
RikkiDee: bets 150
RF_Farmer: calls 150
LETITRIDE427: calls 150
*** RIVER *** [7s Ts Qh 2h] [Qs]
RikkiDee: checks
RF_Farmer: bets 680
LETITRIDE427: calls 680
RikkiDee: raises 550 to 1230 and is all-in
RF_Farmer: folds
LETITRIDE427: calls 550
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [7c 7h] (a full house, Sevens full of Queens)
LETITRIDE427: shows [Ks Jd] (a pair of Queens)
RikkiDee collected 3910 from pot

Ignoring what the complete fish called with on the river (King high?) you’ve gots to love the check raise on the river when the third spade came. Pure genius I must admit. Figured one of them had to be chasing that flush with that betting pattern. Although I would have been in trouble had an ace or 9 came. More trip action? You gots it!

(“gots” count:2)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qh Qc]
RikkiDee: raises $2 to $3
jjmill3: folds
AnaghA: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [4h 7d 4c]
AnaghA: checks
RikkiDee: bets $5
AnaghA: calls $5
*** TURN *** [4h 7d 4c] [Qd]
AnaghA: checks
RikkiDee: checks
*** RIVER *** [4h 7d 4c Qd] [7s]
JLL3 joins the table at seat #3
AnaghA: bets $10
stawho joins the table at seat #1
RikkiDee: raises $107.50 to $117.50 and is all-in
AnaghA: calls $75.60 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Qh Qc] (a full house, Queens full of Sevens)
AnaghA: mucks hand
RikkiDee collected $186.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $187.70 | Rake $1
Board [4h 7d 4c Qd 7s]
Seat 4: jjmill3 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: AnaghA (big blind) mucked [Ks Kh]
Seat 6: RikkiDee (button) showed [Qh Qc] and won ($186.70) with a full house, Queens full of Sevens

This one was a cash game as you can see, and I had been dealt AA twice and JJ in the past 5 minutes, I envisioned my opponents getting tired of my domination when this hand started. So I do the standard play here, raising preflop on the button with queens and betting the pretty safe flop for my hand. And the caller here in this situation is what I would refer to as an “overvaluator”, where they figure hands like top pair are all in worthy, so I wasn’t overly scared of his call. Then my gin card hits on the turn, giving me the nut boat (if he has quad fours it wasn’t my day) and I slyly check like the genius I am. When the second seven hits on the river I say a silent prayer as that is pretty much the best card I could have hoped for, seeing as how if he has a 7 it is going to be extremely hard to fold a boat there, especially the way it was played. When he calls my reraise and mucks KK I’m pretty surprised that he called when there was almost no chance KK was good and relieved in the fact that I did hit that queen on the turn. Thanks for the double up, and I gots my second boner of the day (and third “gots”).

Sorry, too much boner talk. I'll try and curb my enthusiasm next time.

One last thing if you are still with me.

Dees Nuts? You'll have to click to find out

Freak you

I was 6 tabling $0.01-$0.02 games last night for fun just to see how I could multi-table cash games, when I came across an interesting style of play. This player, named “markiepooh99” bought in for a mighty $2. He then went on to go all in every hand. After busting my KK and another players opponents AK, some player was going off on him for how much of a “donkey” he was. Markiepooh99, not to be outdone, quickly rebutted with this line.

Probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever read in poker chat, I’m glad I caught it. Yes, prove to us how much of a man you are at the massive $0.02/0.04 tables.

What is also strange about the $0.01/0.02 tables is that people actually care what happens. The chat boxes are active, filled with insults and questioning of others sexuality. People are genuinely upset when players play bad and suck outs. What I don’t understand is that why don’t players realize that people playing at this low of stakes are doing it for one of two reasons – they are terrible players and need to learn with at least some money at stake, or they are higher stakes players playing for fun. Obviously there is going to be bad play at this level, why do you care? If you lose it’s only a few cents! Even when I was playing I didn’t mind getting my aces cracked by A2o, and I’m a freakin spaz.

Oh and freakin is my new favorite word to use in Poker Stars chat. Since they block out almost every fun swear word, I usually have to find clever ways around it. But typing out F U CK when you lose isn’t fun. You just want to type it out instantly, not worry about spacing it out. So now, for half comedic and half therapeutic value, I’m going to use FREAK instead. FREAK YOU MAN, GO FREAK YOURSELF! Ahh yes, I can feel the pain washing away already.

Wow, a post that isn’t 14 pages long, you can thank me by sending me an E-Christmas card.

Close don't count

*stupidly long post warning*

So you know that tournament I qualified for the other day? Well the final was yesterday afternoon, started at 2pm. I was pretty excited for it since the tournament it self was pretty unique in the fact that the blind structure was half as fast as a usual tournament. That’s right, 30 minute blinds. And with only 132 entrants I was pretty stoked about my chances, seeing as how luck wouldn’t be as important a factor since the small blinds will allow my ridiculous skill to play a role. But since only 1st place gave anything, I wasn’t overly optimistic about winning the thing.

So I trudged along, playing my usual overly tight, aggressive game (a la Harrington). I was surprised to see how much a difference the small blinds made, and am really glad Stars puts on these types of tournaments, wish there were more of them but it is nice to see a company not worrying about just getting the tournament over and done with as soon as possible. The only way to get in the tourney was to win one of the smaller FPP satellites (ranging from 60-300 FFP) or you could buy directly in for 6000. Who the fuck has 6000 to blow on one tournament? Well about 30 people did, no clue how they achieved so many. Anyways, back to the lecture at hand.

Trudging along, treading water and staying afloat are all decent descriptions of how I was playing. I wasn’t picking up much, so I stole my little pots here and there, staying right around the median for the first few hours of the tournament. I eventually doubled up with aces through an unfortunate player’s kings to keep me nice and fat for a while. And since the blinds weren’t keeping me in panic mode, I just sat back and waited for cards, a nice relaxing change. Eventually, that strategy proved somewhat too passive, as I found myself low on the totem pole eventually (mostly due to some badly timed “moves”) and had to start making some risky pre-flop moves. After all-in’ing 3 straight hands preflop I picked up KK, and again, pushed, I guess the chip leader figured me for a steal (why would he think that?) and called with JTo. Kings held up and I’m back in business.

More treading and staying afloat, when these hands came about.

Table '15883574 11' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Camm (5157 in chips)
Seat 2: skeet71 (27233 in chips)
Seat 4: TexasGator (10997 in chips)
Seat 5: Jeb61161 (11723 in chips)
Seat 6: CA Poppy (13328 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (7577 in chips)
Seat 9: rambo20 (5792 in chips)
Camm: posts small blind 200
skeet71: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Td Th]
TexasGator: folds
Jeb61161: raises 400 to 800
CA Poppy: folds
RikkiDee: raises 2400 to 3200
rambo20: folds
Camm: folds
skeet71: folds
Jeb61161: calls 2400
*** FLOP *** [Kd 9s 5s]
Jeb61161: bets 1200
RikkiDee: raises 3152 to 4352 and is all-in
Jeb61161: calls 3152
*** TURN *** [Kd 9s 5s] [8c]
RikkiDee said, "now thats a call"
*** RIVER *** [Kd 9s 5s 8c] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Jeb61161: shows [7h Ah] (high card Ace)
RikkiDee: shows [Td Th] (a pair of Tens)
RikkiDee collected 15879 from pot

I truly have no idea what he was thinking when he called, he even took his time and then made the call with A7 no draw. I figured at the time that I was dead to a king, but wasn’t going to let some little weak lead bluff take me out.

Two hands later…

Table '15883574 11' Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Camm (4857 in chips)
Seat 2: skeet71 (25533 in chips)
Seat 4: TexasGator (11872 in chips)
Seat 5: Jeb61161 (3559 in chips)
Seat 6: CA Poppy (12828 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (16091 in chips)
Seat 9: rambo20 (7067 in chips)
Camm: posts the ante 25
skeet71: posts the ante 25
TexasGator: posts the ante 25
Jeb61161: posts the ante 25
CA Poppy: posts the ante 25
RikkiDee: posts the ante 25
rambo20: posts the ante 25
CA Poppy: posts small blind 200
RikkiDee: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [6d 4d]
rambo20: folds
Camm: folds
skeet71: folds
TexasGator: raises 400 to 800
Jeb61161: folds
CA Poppy: calls 600
RikkiDee: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [4s 4h Ac]
CA Poppy: checks
RikkiDee: bets 1000
TexasGator: folds
CA Poppy: calls 1000
*** TURN *** [4s 4h Ac] [3h]
CA Poppy: checks
RikkiDee: bets 2000
CA Poppy: calls 2000
*** RIVER *** [4s 4h Ac 3h] [4c]
CA Poppy: checks
RikkiDee: bets 12266 and is all-in
CA Poppy: calls 9003 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [6d 4d] (four of a kind, Fours)
CA Poppy: shows [Ts Td] (a full house, Fours full of Tens)
TexasGator said, "vnh"
RikkiDee collected 26581 from pot

I went in on at the end figuring he must have at least an ace, and that he would most likely call thinking I’m trying to steal a split pot. This move comes up so rarely it is nice to use it, but I cannot believe what he called with. Ten freaking ten, not even an ace, just awful. But hey hey, guess who is chip leader with 20 left? You think I might even win this thing? Impossible.

My big stack play leaves a lot to be desired. I’m naturally tight and conservative, so the aggressive bully isn’t my forte. But I know it is +EV to push people around when the timing is right. I also think I have a sense of when people are trapping me, but I usually end up putting too much cash in the pot before I realize it.

So my first move is this nice one from a stupid ass minimum preflop raiser.

Dealt to RikkiDee [4s 2c]
rambo20: folds
Camm: folds
skeet71: folds
TexasGator: raises 400 to 800
Jeb61161: folds
RikkiDee: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [2h 3c 9c]
RikkiDee: checks
TexasGator: bets 1200
RikkiDee: raises 3800 to 5000
TexasGator: folds
RikkiDee collected 4350 from pot
RikkiDee: doesn't show hand

I’m not folding anything preflop to a pussy ass minimum raise, especially with antes in the mix. If this guy wants to raise, make it 3x my friend or nothing at all.

Eventually, I find myself at the final table, with chips to play with and small blinds, incredible. There are 8 players left, I’m sitting at about 30k in chips, with 5 others hovering around me, and 2 short stacks. I pretty much play standard Harrington tournament poker, and chip myself up to the leader again, just by stealing and making continuation bets. I can feel the table is tightening up, and is unwilling to put their tourney on the line with a mediocre hand. For the first time I really can take advantage of this since I’m not multi-tabling and can really focus on who is weak.

Eventually, after seemingly hours of stealing blinds and flops, we actually get to play some poker. This time - against the other big stack at the table. Let me tell you I wasn’t feeling good playing this hand.

Table '15883574 12' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: AuroraKT (25987 in chips)
Seat 3: ! JP 1950 ! (31997 in chips)
Seat 4: hkb2145 (43733 in chips)
Seat 6: malji (33338 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (49445 in chips)
AuroraKT: posts the ante 75
! JP 1950 !: posts the ante 75
hkb2145: posts the ante 75
malji: posts the ante 75
RikkiDee: posts the ante 75
! JP 1950 !: posts small blind 600
hkb2145: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Tc Ac]
malji: folds
RikkiDee: raises 2400 to 3600
AuroraKT: folds
! JP 1950 !: folds
hkb2145: raises 4800 to 8400
RikkiDee: calls 4800

(standard 3xbb raise with a decent hand, but this time I received playback from the BB, who hadn’t done that yet this game. I knew he had to have a strong hand, and usually would fold to a big reraise here, but I didn’t want the table to see I would fold to a reraise, so I called with position and a prayer)

*** FLOP *** [Ts 7c 8c]

(clearly a good flop for my hand, but if he has an overpair, which he most certainly does, I’m still behind. If he has a pair lower than KK, he may fold to a big reraise, but I can’t be sure. Even if I get a call I have quite a few outs)

hkb2145: bets 7200
RikkiDee: raises 33770 to 40970 and is all-in
hkb2145: calls 28058 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Ts 7c 8c] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 7c 8c 5c] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hkb2145: shows [Jc Js] (a pair of Jacks)
RikkiDee: shows [Tc Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
RikkiDee collected 88291 from pot

So that is that. Other than the somewhat loose preflop call, I don’t think I played the hand incorrectly. On the contrary, even though he had the best hand, I’m not so sure he should have called my reraise. He only had JJ, which, yes is an overpair, but I’m putting both our tourneys on the line, you have to at least suspect that you may be beat. Anyways, boo ya, I’m chip leader with 4 left to go, this isn’t happening.

After seemingly hours of play (including a ridiculously long 15 minute break) we finally get heads up. I am pretty much shitting out of my own mouth at this point. I’ve never been heads up with something this large on the line (total prize was worth 16k, with 2nd place getting nothing). Heads up I’m against your standard passive calling station. I hate calling stations heads up, I can’t beat them, but I’ve got a pretty decent lead on him. We start with:

Seat 1: AuroraKT (78190 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (106310 in chips)

Blinds are 1500/3000, so they are starting to become significant. I’ve noticed that he has strayed away from his calling station attitude heads up, and is allowing me to steal a lot preflop. So pretty much no matter what 2 cards I have, I’m raising 3bb in position. About 50 hands later, with no real significant hands happening, I have him down to:

Seat 1: AuroraKT (20590 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (163910 in chips)

I can taste victory. I want it so bad, this trip is mine. He starts to pull the all in trigger almost every hand, and I can’t pick up anything. He chops back to even and I want to shoot myself. That’s when it happens. The worst hand I’ve ever played. Now, I need to set this one up with some previous hands to describe why I played the hand the way I did, so here we go.

He has been known to do these little minimum raises post flop with absolutely nothing. I never understand this move, but see it a lot.

Example 1:

msumike22: raises 1600 to 2400
AuroraKT: raises 1600 to 4000
msumike22: raises 5828 to 9828 and is all-in
AuroraKT: calls 5828
*** FLOP *** [Tc 5c Qh]
*** TURN *** [Tc 5c Qh] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 5c Qh Ad] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
msumike22: shows [9d 9c] (two pair, Tens and Nines)
AuroraKT: shows [2s As] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
AuroraKT collected 20006 from pot

This one is preflop, but you get the idea. A mimimum raise to a short stack who is out of position accomplishes nothing. He is going all in and your A2 is not the best hand, but despite that he puts in a min raise with this terrible hand.

Example 2:

Seat 1: AuroraKT (43670 in chips)
Seat 6: malji (57304 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (83526 in chips)
AuroraKT: posts the ante 150
malji: posts the ante 150
RikkiDee: posts the ante 150
RikkiDee: posts small blind 1500
AuroraKT: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [2s 8s]
malji: raises 3000 to 6000
RikkiDee: folds
AuroraKT: calls 3000
*** FLOP *** [5s Jd 2h]
AuroraKT: bets 9000
malji: raises 18000 to 27000
AuroraKT: raises 10520 to 37520 and is all-in
malji: calls 10520
*** TURN *** [5s Jd 2h] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [5s Jd 2h 6d] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
AuroraKT: shows [2c Kc] (a pair of Deuces)
malji: shows [Ts Ac] (high card Ace)
AuroraKT collected 88990 from pot

He is pretty much obsessed with betting into you when you raise preflop. So he does it this hand, and re-re-raises all in with a pair of twos. Somehow he gets a call by a worse hand and wins a big pot.

Example 3:
Seat 1: AuroraKT (66190 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (118310 in chips)
AuroraKT: posts the ante 150
RikkiDee: posts the ante 150
RikkiDee: posts small blind 1500
AuroraKT: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [9c Qc]
RikkiDee: raises 6000 to 9000
AuroraKT: calls 6000
*** FLOP *** [Th 8c Ac]
AuroraKT: checks
RikkiDee: bets 12000
AuroraKT: raises 12000 to 24000
RikkiDee: raises 85160 to 109160 and is all-in
AuroraKT: folds
RikkiDee collected 66300 from pot
RikkiDee: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***

He minimum check raises me after I raised preflop, at this point I wanted him gone and was willing to gamble with the fact that he had an ace. To my surprise he folded. This minimum raise thing is very suspicious.

Ok the hand. The worst hand I ever played.

Seat 1: AuroraKT (91090 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (93410 in chips)
AuroraKT: posts the ante 150
RikkiDee: posts the ante 150
RikkiDee: posts small blind 1500
AuroraKT: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [6c As]
RikkiDee: raises 6000 to 9000
AuroraKT: calls 6000
*** FLOP *** [Qc 2c Ah]
AuroraKT: checks
RikkiDee: bets 10000
AuroraKT: calls 10000

As I said I had been raising preflop with pretty much everything, and betting the flop when checked to me. He folded often, so I should have been alert of his call, I wasn’t. I was happy enough to flop top pair here and was certain in my mind that I was ahead.

*** TURN *** [Qc 2c Ah] [2s]
AuroraKT: bets 9000

Now he bets into me (small bet) when the board pairs. Usually fish do this trying to represent the fact that they hit three of a kind, but I’m not buying it since there is no way he called pre and post flop with a 2 in his hand, I’m putting him on a flush draw/queen and that weak lead means he doesn’t want a raise. Guess what? I’m raising.

RikkiDee: raises 15000 to 24000
AuroraKT: raises 21000 to 45000

Here comes his minimum reraise again. As with any re-re-raise, I am scared. I thought about folding here, but still had it in the back of my mind that he was on a flush draw. Combined with the fact that he has pulled this stupid fucking minimum reraise bullshit before, and the weak lead bet of 9000 to start, I still think there is a chance I am ahead. Plus, if he has an ace, unless it is AK we are splitting this pot.

RikkiDee: calls 21000
*** RIVER *** [Qc 2c Ah 2s] [Jd]
AuroraKT: bets 26940 and is all-in
RikkiDee: calls 26940
*** SHOW DOWN ***
AuroraKT: shows [Qh Ac] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
RikkiDee: shows [6c As] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
AuroraKT collected 182180 from pot
RikkiDee said, "gg"

Ya, gg. I gave away the game. The first game that ever mattered to me, and I blew it. I was up 160k-20k and couldn’t finish it. In retrospect I’m not sure if I made the right play or not. Clearly I can’t fold to his all in on the river in the off chance he just has an ace or a flush draw, and the pot was massive at that point.

I’ve never felt so distraught and ugly after a poker loss. I had a chance to win 16k and blew it. 16k is a ridiculous amount of money for me. I had daydreamed about playing in the EPT final all day while playing this tournament. It is truly awful to lose one of these all or nothing tournaments. It just makes me upset that I had to finish 2nd, I would have been much better off getting 5th or some bullshit, not knowing how close I could have been.

The only thing I’m taking away from this tourney is the fact that I think my skill really did shine by taking advantage of the small blinds. Usually late in these MTT’s its all in or fold no matter how many chips you have. This time, it was much different and I could make some great moves and plays with hands I would have never dreamed of playing in a usual tournament. I’m probably being pretty naïve by saying this, but I don’t see myself ever being in this good of position again. I never really figured I would ever qualify for a large WPT/EPT?WSOP event, since there is just too much luck involved. But this was my shot, and I blew it. I had to win 2 straight tourneys to get to the EPT and almost did it. 2nd place counts for jack.

Sorry for the ridiculously long post. I can’t write enough about how upset I am about this loss.

Those dang FPP tourneys

Lookie lookie...

PokerStars Tournament #15883687, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: 60 FPP
397 players
Total Prize Pool: 23820 FPP 
Target Tournament #15883574 
3 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started - 2005/12/09 - 00:30:00 (ET)

Dear RikkiDee, 

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
You qualified to play in Tournament #15883574 and are
automatically registered for it. 
See Tournament #15883574 Lobby for further details.



Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

I pretty much play like 3 of these little FPP tourneys a day, not paying much attention to them when I play. This one I somehow won... making it the largest tournament that I've won with 397 entrants. Not that it means that much since it was just an FPP satelite to a larger tournament, but I was still pretty excited. I've played in my fair share of MTT's, with random success. I don't have enough experience in large MTT's to not get excited when I approach the final table. Every time I get even within the top 30 I get all fidgedy and invision myself winning the whole thing, usually busting out 2 hands later. But this tournament wouldn't end. I didn't bust out, I just kept chugging along, watching random people drop out one by one.

I owe my win to folding a big hand early on, I will post it now. I am glad I have the discipline and trust in my instincts to fold hands like these now.

Seat 1: River Rat DG (4789 in chips)
Seat 2: J.C.'s Nikko (250 in chips)
Seat 3: RikkiDee (8410 in chips)
Seat 4: conservativ1 (5985 in chips)
Seat 6: Kings718 (13385 in chips)
Seat 7: sluffin1 (12613 in chips)
Seat 8: Cragganmore (945 in chips)
Seat 9: LH367 (19780 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 100
conservativ1: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [6h 4h]
Kings718: calls 200
sluffin1: calls 200
Cragganmore: folds
LH367: calls 200
River Rat DG: folds
RikkiDee: calls 100
conservativ1: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 2d 3h]
RikkiDee: checks
conservativ1: checks
Kings718: bets 400
sluffin1: calls 400
LH367: calls 400
RikkiDee: raises 1600 to 2000

(quick intervention, I make this move occassionally when I see a small bet followed by a few calls, even though it is kind of transparent as most people would most likely put me on a weak hand here, it has had its success in the past. I would do this with 2 pair/set here too, and for all I know I have 12 outs with the gutshot and flush draws.)

conservativ1: folds
Kings718: calls 1600
sluffin1: calls 1600
LH367: calls 1600

(THREE (!!!) calls? What the hell? Either I'm playing against the most passive lambs on the planet or there is more than one draw out there)

*** TURN *** [Ah 2d 3h] [Jh]
RikkiDee: checks
Kings718: checks
sluffin1: bets 200
LH367: raises 1200 to 1400
RikkiDee said, "have to fold"
RikkiDee: folds
Kings718: calls 1400
sluffin1: calls 1200
*** RIVER *** [Ah 2d 3h Jh] [6s]
Kings718: checks
sluffin1: checks
LH367: bets 16180 and is all-in
Kings718: folds
sluffin1: calls 9013 and is all-in
RikkiDee said, "wow"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LH367: shows [Kh 7h] (a flush, Ace high)
sluffin1: shows [Qh Th] (a flush, Ace high - lower cards)
RikkiDee said, "3 flushes"
LH367 collected 31226 from pot

I knew I was beat when that flush card came, but that is pretty incredible. 11/13 hearts were in play this hand.

GG ME

Changing of the guard

You know that multi-tabling sit&go thing I was doing a while ago? Well I stopped doing it because it was fucking with my cash game style. I was getting too wild and careless, and decided that it was my “tournament” brain interfering with my regular, conservative safe ring game play. Not sure if that theory is true, but I was losing and needed some kind of excuse. Since I stopped I did notice a decrease in losses, otherwise known as an increase in winnings. Of course that could just be some statistical coincidence.

Anyways, what was the point of this post? I sort of drifted off there…

Oh yea, so even though I had been doing better in cash games, the tournament bug that I thought I had fumigated out of my brain was actually only burrowed, and it found it’s way out when the dust had cleared. Late at night I found myself playing multiple sit&go’s, despite what I had told myself about doing it. It’s just too fun, and I actually turn profits by doing it. So I decided, why not try that for a while?

For statistical evidence, I’ve played 243 sit&go’s since November 10th. I have an average return on investment of approximately 1.51. Meaning for every dollar invested, I get 1.51 in return. Nothing spectacular, but I suspect that those numbers are a bit off, since I’ve been lazy tracking tournament results, as well as I feel I’ve improved a great deal since I started multi-tabling. The last 3 days I’ve gained end day profits of +$200, which is above my goal. I’ve been playing 6 – 9 person sit&go’s, total buy in of $165 (a mix of $20 and $30 games). I truly think my game is as efficient as it can be for playing 6 at once. Clearly I can’t put any really good reads on people, but as simple as it sounds, if you play good cards, you will do well. I basically just play the statistics. This is going to sound extremely basic, but if you raise with a statistically superior hand, in the long run, your play will show a profit. Take those Sklansky and Harrington starting hand charts and memorize them. They will play the game for you in these quick sit&go’s. The early game is where the only real skill is. Once the blinds get to around 50/100, there will be at least one if not two or three short stacks just pushing or folding. That will include you as well, don’t get down if you are under $1000 in chips with the blinds at 50/100, there is nothing you can do sometimes when you get down, its inevitable. Anyways, I am really rambling here, but what I’m saying is that the strong hands play the game for me, and I don’t need to concentrate as much on what my opponents are doing.

Hope that made sense, I don’t think it did.

Anyways, I realized something pretty significant about the difference of playing ring or tournaments for income. With ring games, you are always at the mercy of losing your buy in. There is no “fixed amount” you can lose. You could loose 1-5 buyins in a day without doing anything really incorrect (alternatively you could also win those buyins, but lets ignore that to make my distinction more credible). By playing multi tournaments, you are putting in a fixed amount of cash, and playing for a fixed amount of time. And if my calculated ROI is anywhere near accurate, I should show a profit over time. I guess it’s a way of stabilizing no limit poker.

Additionally, I enjoy playing tournaments more. My goal with this whole “playing poker for a living” experiment was to make a living without working. It’s debatable that playing poker could be considered “work” by any classical definition, but playing ring cash games was truly starting to feel like work sometimes. I wasn’t really enjoying myself, and perhaps, not doing as well because of it. There is no sense of accomplishment with ring games, well, other than the cash you win, which is important to some selfish people I suppose, but with me it is more about the game. I am a purist. Ok if you read that without throwing up and are still with me, what I mean is that in ring games, there is no start, no finish. The only highs and lows you feel are from winning and losing money, but it truly is only long ass session with no end in sight. With tourneys, especially sit&go’s, you get to win something. Coming first is especially invigorating. And for some reason, losing one sit&go isn’t as bad as some of the pain I’ve felt when losing a massive pot in a ring game. Even if someone makes a ridiculously bad play that knocks me out, the pain is mitigated by two things. One, the fact that I’m playing 5 other tourneys, and two, the loss of one hand is only representative of one tourney buyin, which is trivial really. The only real disadvantage of playing tourneys over ring games, is I lose that respect from my fellow poker brethren who grind it out in cash games every day. Barry Greenstein would be so disappointed in me. Oh yea, I don’t give two shits about what he thinks. He can say that shit to my face before I consider him.

Umm yea.

So, as long as I continue showing profits, I’ll be multi-tabling sit&go’s until the well is dry. I know with every other blog posting I change my mind on what strategy I’m going to take to make a living, but that’s why this is an experiment. I’m allowed to change it up.

Damage control

After last weeks unpleasantness, I actually considered quitting this poker thing – it’s just too much headache and stress. As I said before, I live my life stress free, rarely getting upset about anything. Losing sessions were devastating my psyche, and I wanted to quit.

Well not really. But I considered it.

I needed to re-evaluate what I was doing (again) and try to discover some leaks in my game that may be leading to potential long term losses.

First, I dropped levels, from 1/2 NL to 0.50/1.00 NL. It hurt the ol’ ego, but the bankroll thanked me. Then I started to examine all my big-medium losses. Since I am pretty tight preflop, I figured that I wasn’t leaking cash by playing too many hands. It must be the big pots that I’m playing incorrectly or inefficiently. I started to notice a small but distinct trend. All big pots (won or lost) all consisted of me playing a little wildly (not unexpected). This “wild” style is basically how I play my tournament games, which is clearly not how you want to be playing cash games. Check raising with draws, and pushing all in with overpairs / 2 pair and the like are all fine and dandy in tourneys, where the blinds keep you pressured to push your marginal/strong hands to double up to stay in. But in cash games, the blinds aren’t going anywhere. There isn’t much need to push small edges unless you enjoy large variance. And what kind of sick motherfucker likes variance?

*quick note, “motherfucker” passes spell check*

One other thing I considered was how many hands I was playing preflop. I know I wasn’t playing too many, but I thought perhaps I wasn’t playing enough. Maybe I was giving up too many +EV situations by folding too much. And coincidently I ran across this quote in Caro’s Book of Tells that confirmed my suspicions.

“It's just as bad to throw a hand away that has an expectation of profit than to play a hand that doesn't. In other words, you lose profit by not taking advantage of hands that are strong enough and you lose profit by playing hands that are not strong enough.”

I play 6 max tables, which is just asking for variance to kick your ass in the first place. Additionally, you must play more hands than you would at a 10 max table (obviously). So you have to start seeing flops with hands like QTo and A6s – which I think I understand, I think. I’m not really sure which hands I should be seeing in certain situations. Like, how good of a hand do you need to see a flop when everyone folds to you on the button? Is any ace good? How about suited cards? Or 97o? I don’t know. And since I’m not a fan of “stealing” the pot when it is checked to me on the button (probably more +EV I’m giving up right there) I would lose the potential advantage from limping in with any 2 cards on the button. In fixed limit, its pretty clear which hands will show profits in pre-determined situations, with computer simulations and the like telling you whats +EV. But due to the nature of NL, you can’t ever really know what the optimal play is, since you could end up risking a lot more than you ever wanted to. You must consider your opponents first and foremost. If you are up against one of those typical multi-tablers who play the top 10 hands, a steal from the button is almost guaranteed a +EV play, but against a loose cannon, you could be asking for trouble.

The hand that causes me the most trouble, are Ax in late position when everyone folds to you. Is it +EV to raise, call or fold in that situation? Here are my pros and cons for each.

Pros for raising

• Ax is favored over random hands, therefore you should make your opponents pay to see the flop.
  

• You gain control of the hand, and you may be able to steal the pot when your opponent checks to you. Additionally you can get usually get heads up against opponents by raising, increasing your EV.

Cons for raising

• Generally speaking, anyone who will call your raise will have you beat, often times by a better ace. If an ace hits you could lose a big pot unless you have a good read on your opponent and can lay down your pair of aces.
  

• You really only have one card to hit on the flop, since if you hit your 2nd card you can’t be all that happy. Compare that to a hand like QJ where if you hit either card you are happy.

• If people see you raising with Ax, they may start to play back at you, especially if you are raising a lot. Playback is never fun.

So is calling the answer? Certainly folding an ace shorthanded has to be –EV.

Pros for calling

• You don’t invest a lot of cash in a hand that isn’t that strong. That makes sense.
  

• If an ace hits, people may not put you on it because you didn’t raise preflop.
  

• You can steal more liberally if it is checked to you since if you bet people won’t put you on a bluff since you didn’t raise preflop. They will most likely put you on a value bet, or maybe a position steal depending on how you play.

Cons for calling

• Limping in is a weak play, you lose control of the hand and you encourage more people to limp in giving you more opponents. Additionally if someone ends up raising behind you, you are faced with a tough decision, usually a fold and another wasted blind.
  

• Hitting your ace is a mixed blessing of course, since you can easily be outkicked. Also when aces appear on flops, people sort of freeze up when they don’t have one. Even the fishiest of fish may stop chasing their QTo unimproved once an ace hits. As its been said often, you end up winning a lot of small pots and losing large ones.

So after that investigation, I’m still not sure. I think it is –EV to fold, it has to be, but I’m not sure what the +EV play is. I need help.

Wow this post got a lot longer than I anticipated and I didn’t even get to what I wanted to talk about. Another post perhaps?

TUNE IN TONIGHT FOR A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE.

The most dangerous man alive

I cannot beat this opponent.

We all know him and have been annoyed to the point of suicide by him.

The type of player who will call you down to the river with nothing but ace high / no draw. But they aren’t your standard calling station. They are aggressive. They will bet with anything, and they will call with anything. They raise pre-flop with A5o and they call re-raises after limping in with 54o. They over bet pots as bluffs and with strong hands. They call no matter what they have hoping to hit that miracle card on the river. On their statistics where it states the percentage of times they have seen the river – that percentage is 100%. Hands taken to showdown? 100%.

There is no known cure for this opponent.

Sure, you can isolate, very easily in fact. Since there is no possibility that this opponent will fold preflop, and will most likely have already raised the pot, a simple re-raise will usually eliminate everyone, and leave you heads up. But since there is no discernable pattern in his betting (he bets with anything and he calls with anything) there is no way to truly know if you are ahead. Say you raise with AK and the board is A92 rainbow, and you have your friend heads up. Mathematically I will be ahead here approximately 99.9% of the time, but against this opponent, I now know I am up against a better hand. I should probably just fold, saving myself the inevitable large loss that I will incur.

You can only make estimated guesses as to your position. You have top pair top kicker and he is betting into you? A re-raise will put more money in the pot, but he will insta-call you. Now what do you know? Turn comes a blank, and he check/insta calls you to the river. River comes another blank and now he comes out betting a pot sized bet, what do you do? You’ve seen him do this as a bluff, with strong hands, with top pair, how can you make this decision? You don’t. You fold and go to another table. Weak? Yes. But is there any reason to get in an e-cock contest online? There is no doubt about, this opponent WILL suck out on you, and he will frustrate you to no end. And because he bets and calls everything, you can’t out play him, unless you pick up the nuts.

Tell tale signs of this opponent?

Betting and calling re-raises with any pair. It doesn’t matter if it is bottom pair with a 2 kicker, this man will bet it, and call an all in re-raise with it.

Betting and calling with any draw – including a gutshot draw. Same as above, even a gutshot draw is good enough to bet, and call an all in re-raise with.

Seeing every hand from the flop – river. Ignorantly raising and calling on every street.

If you are up against this opponent take your money elsewhere, unless you enjoy heartbreaking fluctuations in your bankroll.

Maybe its me...

Or maybe it's just the nature of No Limit Hold'Em, but I'm starting to think that it is not a form of poker for a sustainable income. If you get your bankroll/buyin all in on the flop as a 90% favorite often, you eventually will lose - guess what, only 1 out of ten times. Sound like a good investment? Lets see how many times it has happened to me, shall we? And I appologize in advance for the typical whining / bad beat stories that plauge poker blogs worldwide, but hey, it's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Seat 9: RikkiDee1 [ KC,KD ]
Seat 10: MouMurda
ANTES/BLINDS
RikkiDee1 posts blind ($1), MouMurda posts blind ($2).

PRE-FLOP
swede104 folds
thacrill folds
BerkeleyBoss bets $7
_zorro folds
marys lamb folds
Cubbies1979 folds
gbpoker calls $7
hathot calls $7
RikkiDee1 bets $22
MouMurda folds
BerkeleyBoss folds
gbpoker calls $16
hathot calls $16.

FLOP [board cards 4S,3D,6D ]
RikkiDee1 bets $50
gbpoker folds
hathot bets $175.90
and is all-in
RikkiDee1 calls $122 and is all-in.

TURN [board cards 4S,3D,6D,10S ]

RIVER [board cards 4S,3D,6D,10S,9C ]

SHOWDOWN
hathot shows [ 9H,9D ]
RikkiDee1 shows [ KC,KD ]
hathot wins $422.90.

NEXT

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ac As]
socalengr: folds
CashGalore: folds
RikkiDee: raises $4 to $6
Archibald: raises $10 to $16
mark3313: folds
sjakal1: folds
RikkiDee: calls $10
*** FLOP *** [Jd 8s 3c]
RikkiDee: checks
Archibald: bets $14
RikkiDee: raises $145.60 to $159.60 and is all-in
Archibald: calls $145.60
*** TURN *** [Jd 8s 3c] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 8s 3c Qd] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Ac As] (a pair of Aces)
Archibald: shows [Qc Qs] (three of a kind, Queens)

MORE MORE

Spiritbear posted the small blind - $1.00
jocke02 posted the big blind - $2.00
** Dealing card to RikkiDee1: Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades
jayrmoney called - $2.00
RikkiDee1 raised - $8.00
RazzleD called - $8.00
PetiteMachin folded
Spiritbear called - $8.00
jocke02 folded
jayrmoney folded

** Dealing the flop: 5 of Hearts, King of Spades, 7 of Diamonds
Spiritbear bet - $34.00
RikkiDee1 raised - $102.00
RazzleD folded
Spiritbear called - $102.00

** Dealing the turn: Queen of Hearts
Spiritbear went all-in - $26.16
RikkiDee1 called - $26.16
Spiritbear shows: 8 of Spades, King of Clubs

** Dealing the river: 8 of Diamonds
Spiritbear wins $281.32 from the main pot

Actually figured I was up against KQ at least. Lets see, he was down to 5 outs there, getting better.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [5h 6h]
luckylinda73: calls $2
siamesern: folds
bouh: folds
Mawnstroe: raises $4 to $6
King James10: calls $5
RikkiDee: calls $4
luckylinda73: calls $4
*** FLOP *** [9h Ks Ah]
King James10: checks
RikkiDee: checks
luckylinda73: checks
Mawnstroe: bets $14
King James10: folds
RikkiDee: calls $14
luckylinda73: folds
*** TURN *** [9h Ks Ah] [2h]
RikkiDee: checks
Mawnstroe: bets $20
RikkiDee: raises $152 to $172 and is all-in
Mawnstroe: calls $99 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [9h Ks Ah 2h] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [5h 6h] (a flush, Ace high)
Mawnstroe: shows [Ad Ac] (a full house, Aces full of Nines)
RikkiDee said, "asdn"
Mawnstroe collected $287 from pot

That one wasn't as bad, he had 10 outs at least.

There are others, not as devastating though due to low opponent stacks, but I assure you, still painfull. Perhaps I should stay away from the all in move, but each time I did it I was about 90% certain I had the best hand (and 90% sure they would call) based on my opponents I was playing against. The mathematical side of my brain knows that all the moves I made were +EV, but my emotional, money grubbing side wants to beat the shit out of my math side. I suppose playing fixed limit would limit these big swings, but you also get sucked out more often as there is no way to protect your hands, or make people draw against the odds. So for now, I'm going to continue. If these suckouts continue, I'm done with poker, at least as a full time income. Considering that these 4 hands happened in a 2 day span, you can understand my frustration.

Additionally, to those cynical readers (as I would be), I did not edit out any hands where I went in on the flop/turn with the worst hand. Even though this snapshot of my play may indicate that I pull the all in trigger every hand, I rarely will. I have about 4-5 other hands where I am actually all in, but that is about it. And after reviewing my hand histories for big wins when I was a big favorite, I found only a couple. Suprising considering the odds of the thing.

Ok I'm rambling, it's late, thanks for being a good listener.

Overbets

Quick post.

If you live the rest of your poker playing days without calling down an overbet with a marginal hand, do you think you would be worse off?

How often have you seen a decent player overbet when they were truly weak?

How often have you called an overbet with just top pair or worse and caught a bluff?

How many times have you been burned by smart players overbetting with extremely strong hands?

Even though I proved nothing, I have a conclusion...

Conclusion. Don't ever call an overbet down hoping your opponent is weak unless you yourself have a strong hand, or have seen your opponent overbet with weaknes enough times that it would make your call reasonable (which is unlikely).

Beware of the overbet!

Fun with a straight flush

Lets ignore how badly I've been playing at the tables for a minute and go over some amusing hands from the past few days. That should lift my spirits!

First hand

Seat 2: Pinch ($45.20 in chips)
Seat 3: Bobbysan ($72 in chips)
Seat 4: Des1mone ($207.95 in chips)
Seat 5: kcajrekcarC ($48.15 in chips)
Seat 6: RikkiDee ($156 in chips)
kcajrekcarC: posts small blind $1
RikkiDee: posts big blind $2
razinray72: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [9c 7c]
Pinch: folds
Bobbysan: folds
Des1mone: folds
kcajrekcarC: calls $1
RikkiDee: checks
*** FLOP *** [6c Tc 5c]

Nice flop, but it could be better...

kcajrekcarC: checks
RikkiDee: bets $2
kcajrekcarC: calls $2
*** TURN *** [6c Tc 5c] [8c]

Ahh thats more like it

kcajrekcarC: checks
RikkiDee: bets $2
kcajrekcarC: raises $6 to $8
RikkiDee: raises $8 to $16
kcajrekcarC: raises $28.15 to $44.15 and is all-in
RikkiDee said, "tough call here"
RikkiDee: calls $28.15
*** RIVER *** [6c Tc 5c 8c] [Ah]
RikkiDee said, "wish u had more"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kcajrekcarC: shows [Qh Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
RikkiDee: shows [9c 7c] (a straight flush, Six to Ten)
RikkiDee collected $94.30 from pot

First time I've ever seen anyone loose a ace high flush to a straight flush, glad I was on the good side. Next....

Seat 1: RikkiDee (1855 in chips)
Seat 3: phattonyr (875 in chips)
Seat 4: JustGuessin (1345 in chips)
Seat 5: Multiport (4415 in chips)
Seat 6: sdesch75 (2545 in chips)
Seat 7: LBStone (355 in chips)
Seat 9: playmakern (2110 in chips)
JustGuessin: posts small blind 15
Multiport: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [8c 9c]
sdesch75: calls 30
LBStone: calls 30
playmakern: calls 30
RikkiDee: calls 30
phattonyr: folds
JustGuessin: folds
Multiport: checks
*** FLOP *** [7c Jc Tc]

At the time of this flop I didn't even realize I flopped the straight flush, so I was betting like I had just a 9 high flush. I even remember saying in my head, "I wonder if I'll get a straight flush". Always on the ball I am when multi-tabling.

Multiport: checks
sdesch75: checks
LBStone: checks
playmakern: checks
RikkiDee: bets 100
Multiport: folds
sdesch75: calls 100
LBStone: folds
playmakern: calls 100
*** TURN *** [7c Jc Tc] [6d]
sdesch75: checks
playmakern: checks
RikkiDee: bets 200
sdesch75: folds
playmakern: calls 200
*** RIVER *** [7c Jc Tc 6d] [Jd]

I cringe when I see the board pair

playmakern: checks
RikkiDee: bets 350
playmakern: raises 1430 to 1780 and is all-in

And I know this check raise all in on the river is almost certainly a full house, but I'm too much of a noob to fold. When I call and he shows me his boat I'm devastated.

RikkiDee: calls 1175 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
playmakern: shows [Js Ts] (a full house, Jacks full of Tens)
RikkiDee: shows [8c 9c] (a straight flush, Seven to Jack)
RikkiDee said, "heh great"
RikkiDee collected 3915 from pot
RikkiDee said, "oh wow"
*** SUMMARY ***

When I said, "heh great" I still thought I was beat. I'm such a guppy sometimes.

So there you have it, straight flushes in back to back days. Before those 2 I've only gotten 1 royal and 1 straight flush before in my life. And both times receiving maximum action, beautiful.

Live Blogging Adventure

Party Poker was nice enough to give me $30 to play with, even though I havn’t made a deposit there yet. And since I’ve had such a rough night at the tables, I decided I’m going to try something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m going to buy in to a low limit with my $30, and try to work my way up to the next buy in level. Once I get to $50, $100, $200 I’ll move up in table levels. I’ll be playing super aggressively with the intent to double up or bust out, you know, tournament style. On top of that, I will be “live blogging” the whole thing, detailing any significant hands. Here we go…

12:09 AM
Party Poker up and loaded. Never really played at this site, having troubles finding the table I want. Ahh they list the NL tables by the max buy-in amount, how convenient. Lets start with $25 tables shall we, 6-max of course, and preferably one with a high avg pot size. I guess $8 is high, lets rock.

12:10 AM
First hand, check raised the big stack with a gutshot and hit, scored a nice $5 pot. Very next pot, hit the nut flush on the river and over bet the pot, and guess what, got a caller. Up to $30.

12:11 AM
Third hand in, got busted trying to run over mr.top pair 7 kicker while I was on a draw, down to $22.

12:13 AM
Wow, my maniacal ways scared off the whole table, down to me and one dude heads up.

12:22 AM
Raised 4bb with 89s preflop, hit the nut straight on the flop, but no action after a pot sized bet, damn. I wonder if people at $25 tables consider table image? Up to $32 stealing pots here and there.

12:28 AM
Up to $37.95 after raising $3(!) preflop with QQ and hitting a set. Too bad it was just against one short stack.

12:38 AM
GG! Raked in a monster pot of $42.50 after hitting two pair, one of them being an ace, who matched up with someone’s AK. Up to $57.50 and I’m off to the $50 tables. Found a juicy $14 avg pot. My official bankroll is $62.50 but only using $50 of it.

12:41 AM
First hand, of course I post since I’m a maniac craving action. I have J7, on a flop of KK8T it is checked to me twice, but I’m up against 4 others still live. I make a pot sized bet, 3 folds and 1 caller. River comes another ten, I make a mighty bet on the river and after some time he folds. Quickly up to $53.15.

12:46 AM
Three hands in, I pick up AJs (clubs). I raise 3bb from first position, 1 caller in the SB and the BB reraises me to $4 (premium pocket pair?). I call as does the SB. Flop comes a fan-fucking-tastic 89T with 2 clubs, giving me an open ended straight and the nut flush draw with 2 overcards. SB checks, BB bets a big $15. I know hes got kings or aces, and I push with my infinity outs, he calls of course, I hit my club and double right up to $103.50! Off to the $100 tables.

12:50 AM
Official bankroll is $112.50, but who’s counting. I buy in to a $34 avg pot game, now we are talking.

12:52 AM
First hand. I decide to call a raise with Q8 of clubs from the SB. Flop is KQx, I check raise the raiser who minimum bet, and follows it with a call. Turn is a J and I bet $10, to my surprise I am reraised. Even I’m not that crazy, I fold. Down to $82 quickly.

12:55 AM
Next hand. I pick up Q9s on the button and raise 4bb, 2 callers. Flop comes with a JTx, giving me the draw. I bet, and get check raised again, I push all in and the stooge who raised me folds. Back up to $92.

12:57 AM
Some gimp raises 3bb and I call with KQ in the BB. Flop is ATT, I check he bets I call. I want him to think I’m slow playing tens (and I could hit my jack), lets hope this works. Turn comes a 6, I check raise him to $30 and he pushes all in. I fold. I guess this is what I asked for. Down to $54.05. I topped up my stack with the remainder of my bankroll. It is now at $68.95. I can feel I’m going down already.

1:02 AM
Someone flops a straight against my TPTK. What can I do? Down to $50. I feel the end is near.

1:03 AM
Well that went well. Same gimp from 2 hands ago raises 3bb, I am once again on the BB this time with QTs, my favorite hand. Flop comes 9TJ. I check raise him all in, he calls. He has KK. I need a K! Damn him. I don’t improve and I’m out.

If I had to do this again, I would establish an aggressive/crazy image early but make sure to eventually make moves with strong hands. I just never really got any at the $100 buy in table. Oh well, lets hope they do this again.

To: support@pokerroom.com

Dear Poker Room


What I am requesting is a partial deposit bonus that represents the number of hands I points I have required. Something like $80 as I’m about one fifth of the way to completion but due to a sequence of improbable bad beats I no longer have any money to play. Even if I did have money left, I wouldn’t ever play here again.

I just wanted to try out your site and clear the deposit bonus. I play at many sites and decided to give yours a try. I thought your site may be the one for me. I was wrong. I can’t really describe how I’m feeling right now. There are so many things about your site that upset me. I’ve been playing at your site against my own will for the past 3 days just trying to clear the deposit bonus to leave as soon as possible. Why oh why do you give your players 0.05 seconds to make a decision? Do you realize how hard it is when playing 2 tables no limit to make quick decisions for what could be your whole stack? And is there any reason you can never see the opponents hand in a showdown? All you show (in that pathetically small text box) is the winning “hand”. Not even the winning cards that the winning hand had, just a description of what the winning hand is. Example, if someone wins a hand with “three of a kind, tens” and there were 2 tens on board, I would like to look back and see what their kicker was. But with your terrible software, it simply just says that they had three of a kind. I suppose I could just pay attention and watch, but it’s a very small fix that could really improve things for multi-tablers. And is there any reason you don’t offer 6 max tables? Or very rarely I should say. Sometimes they inexplicably pop up, and other times they aren’t there, sometimes replaced with 7 max (??) tables? What is the problem here? Does it cost you money to open up a new table? Running out of floor space in the virtual poker room?

I also would like to know if the beats I took broke some kind of probability rule, or at least on the verge of it. I know you must have big computers running your site so you should be able to figure out what the likely hood of losing as an 80% favorite 10+ times. Please review my hand history to see if I qualify for some kind of prolonged bad beat jackpot.

And what would really make my day is if I get an auto-response. That would just be so perfect and would sum up my experience with your site perfectly.

Your friend,

RikkiDee



I'm sure one day that will look pretty stupid as it doesn't even seem that funny or reasonable, but I'm so pissed right now that I don't even know what to do.

rant

just ignore this post

it's just a rage filled attempt to reduce tilting factor.

I just can't fucking handle it anymore. I don't get it. My game is perfect, I don't take "risks", rarely bluff and just play my own fucking cards. I just want to grind out a small living. Why do I deserve to get punished?

Word of warning: Don't play at Poker Room. Just don't even think about it. You see their deposit bonus? It sucks, don't even bother.

The interface fucking blows. The text box is smaller than my mom's fucking cock. They give you about 0.0000000005 seconds to make a decision. They sit you out every other hand for no reason. They don't have 6 max tables. It just fucking sucks.

I get my money in with the best hand every fucking hand, and get sucked out. I don't know what to say anymore. I respect statistics. I've taken many stats courses. I know a lot about probability, chance, luck. I just honestly didn't think it was stastically possible to lose as a 10-1 favorite so often.

It's honestly the most stressfull thing I've ever done, and I never get stressed. I've lived my life with such wanten disregard up to this point, and this stress is truly killing me. I can't lose $500 in one day, its just not possible for my brain to comprehend. And when it happens when I'm getting my entire stack in preflop with aces vs 99 and losing (TWWWWWWWWWICCCCCCCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I feel like maybe God himself is fucking with me. Telling me to do something productive with my life. Maybe my dad has some kind of influence on God.

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