If only FPP's were real money...

Love these FPP tourneys. Wish I could do as well in regular MTT’s as I do in these. Maybe it’s just because I play these more often. Truthfully the 60 fpp tourney is kind of a waste of time since it takes about 4 hours to finish, but hey, its fun and I didn’t feel like spending any more money.

PokerStars Tournament #18305616, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: 60 FPP
610 players
Total Prize Pool: 36600 FPP
Target Tournament #18305373
6 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started - 2006/01/29 - 00:30:00 (ET)

Dear RikkiDee,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
You qualified to play in Tournament #18305373 and are automatically registered for it.
See Tournament #18305373 Lobby for further details.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

PokerStars Tournament #18306600, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: 300 FPP
180 players
Total Prize Pool: 54000 FPP
Target Tournament #18306453
18 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started - 2006/01/28 - 12:45:00 (ET)

Dear RikkiDee,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
You qualified to play in Tournament #18306453 and are automatically registered for it.
See Tournament #18306453 Lobby for further details.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.




You didn’t think I could get through this post without some hand histories?

Alright, just some quick ones for my enjoyment.

Its always nice to get doubled up with Q2 vs K9…

Seat 1: MILKMAN1216 (263 in chips)
Seat 2: davidAura (1479 in chips)
Seat 3: JiJiM (7085 in chips)
Seat 4: juni2402w (8695 in chips)
Seat 5: canucker (9905 in chips)
Seat 6: yanetmanu (6125 in chips)
Seat 7: vikas_tyagi9 (4132 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (8650 in chips)
Seat 9: Pittsburgh01 (6745 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 75
Pittsburgh01: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qh 2h]
MILKMAN1216: folds
davidAura: calls 150
JiJiM: folds
juni2402w: folds
canucker: folds
yanetmanu: calls 150
vikas_tyagi9: folds
RikkiDee: calls 75
Pittsburgh01: checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd 2d 2s]
RikkiDee: bets 450
Pittsburgh01: calls 450
davidAura: folds
yanetmanu: calls 450
*** TURN *** [Kd 2d 2s] [7c]
RikkiDee: bets 1500
Pittsburgh01: calls 1500
yanetmanu: calls 1500
*** RIVER *** [Kd 2d 2s 7c] [6c]
RikkiDee: bets 2500
Pittsburgh01: folds
yanetmanu: calls 2500
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Qh 2h] (three of a kind, Deuces)
yanetmanu: mucks hand
RikkiDee collected 11450 from pot

What is weird is for the longest time in my life, I’ve always wanted to catch trip two’s on the flop. I actually don’t think I’ve ever done it other than a pocket pair. Even when this happened I laughed to myself and said “finally”. As a side note, this is one of my favorite tournament moves to make – betting right out with trips. It truly catches people off guard and they can’t get away from their top pair. Look at those fucking killer bets. Holy shit I am rough. Ok one more.

Seat 1: bighitta (18124 in chips)
Seat 2: BigMoney17 (115057 in chips)
Seat 3: Playyya (36133 in chips)
Seat 4: tommygun22 (22479 in chips)
Seat 5: redsquad25 (45291 in chips)
Seat 6: Slapphappy4 (13779 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (25755 in chips)
Seat 9: bigbet17 (19655 in chips)
bighitta: posts the ante 50
BigMoney17: posts the ante 50
Playyya: posts the ante 50
tommygun22: posts the ante 50
redsquad25: posts the ante 50
Slapphappy4: posts the ante 50
RikkiDee: posts the ante 50
bigbet17: posts the ante 50
bighitta: posts small blind 400
BigMoney17: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Js Jh]
Playyya: raises 2400 to 3200
tommygun22: folds
redsquad25: calls 3200
Slapphappy4: folds
RikkiDee: raises 22505 to 25705 and is all-in
bigbet17: folds
bighitta: folds
BigMoney17: folds
Playyya: calls 22505
redsquad25: folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 3d 2d]
*** TURN *** [7d 3d 2d] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [7d 3d 2d 4s] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Playyya: shows [Th Ts] (two pair, Tens and Deuces)
RikkiDee: shows [Js Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
RikkiDee collected 56210 from pot

Ok here you may be thinking I make kind of a reckless play, and it is, especially for me. But, I had sound reasoning before I did it. First, I noticed that this player had already played KK earlier and only min raised with it preflop. So when he came out raising 4bb’s, I knew he had something decent, but not aces or kings. The only thing I was truly worried about were queens. Additionally, I have enough chips here that my raise is very significant, and isn’t an automatic call based on pot odds. One final nuance about this hand is that I pulled a squeeze play. Basically when someone raises and you have a read on them that they aren’t all that strong, then someone just calls behind them, you can make this type of raise with any 2 decent cards, and generally they will both fold, since you know neither are all that strong. The guy made a pretty bad call with the tens here in my book since I’m basically representing at least an overpair, *maybe* AK in which he is gambling for all his chips on a coin flip. But of course you can’t expect players in 60 fpp tourneys to know this, so they call with TT. All in all, I really like my play here, and it would be even more successful if some money were on the line since they would be more apt to fold here.

That was fun, one more hand only I promise. It’s another really risky play.

Seat 2: BigMoney17 (53999 in chips)
Seat 3: 411CZY (140798 in chips)
Seat 4: tommygun22 (114966 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (69856 in chips)
Seat 8: MilfTrapper (136462 in chips)
BigMoney17: posts the ante 150
411CZY: posts the ante 150
tommygun22: posts the ante 150
RikkiDee: posts the ante 150
MilfTrapper: posts the ante 150
411CZY: posts small blind 1500
tommygun22: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qs Jd]
RikkiDee: raises 6000 to 9000
MilfTrapper: folds
BigMoney17: folds
411CZY: folds
tommygun22: calls 6000
*** FLOP *** [3d 8h 7h]
tommygun22: bets 3000
RikkiDee: raises 14500 to 17500
tommygun22: calls 14500
*** TURN *** [3d 8h 7h] [Td]
tommygun22: bets 3000
RikkiDee: raises 40206 to 43206 and is all-in
tommygun22: folds
RikkiDee collected 61250 from pot

5 handed I’ll raise QJ every time, since it has some decent post flop potential if anyone ends up calling me. Plus the blinds are huge, and stealing them is obviously part of my plan here. So my opponent comes right out and bets a little tiny probe bet into me, the pre-flop raiser. Actually up to this point I had really only been showing down super strong hands, and really hadn’t been stealing that much, so I thought that my raises would get a little bit more respect. So when he bets into me, I read this as weakness, and I pop it up, he pretty much insta calls. Again, on the turn he leads out again with the same weak ass shit. I know he doesn’t like his hand at all, but wants to see a showdown. If I had to guess it would be something like 66, A8/7 or maybe AQ/K. So I push, with nothing but a gutshot draw and 2 overs – 10 outs. I was pretty scared here that he would call, but I knew he was really weak and I had just enough chips that his curiosity wouldn’t just call “just to see what I had”. He took his entire time bank to eventually fold. First time I’ve sweated like that for an online tourney in a long ass time. I pretty much never have the opportunity to make these big moves since the games I usually play are all in preflop. It’s nice to be able to play some post flop, deep stacked tourneys, especially late game with something on the line. Of course both these plays could have easily backfired and I wouldn’t be posting this right now, but hey, they worked and I’m a temporary genius.

When we get down to the final table, I end up short stacked with 7 players left. I actually get down to less than 5 bb but luckily my queens hold up against someone’s 88 and I steal a few blinds to get me even with the last remaining short stack. We are both down to about 50k with blinds at 3000/6000, and the other 5 players all have over 100k, and since the top 6 make it, it is really a race between us 2. Now, I have only about 100 hands tracked on this guy, and he has played 4% of hands, never raised and has zero aggression factor. So I know he is going to turtle and try to sneak into 6th unless he picks up a monster. So I pick a different strategy, I decide that I’m going to be aggressive, steal as many blinds as I can to gain a lead on him and hopefully dodge an all in confrontation. I push with 55 from early position, no callers. Round 1 – RikkiDee. With 43k, I pick up AJ on the button. There is an early position limper from a big stack who has seen pretty much every flop since the beginning of time. Everyone else folds. I decide it is go time, and push, obviously hoping that the limper folds, but hey, I have AJ. I guess the big stack decided that it was time to end this and called with K3s. I was shocked and horrified by this call, but luckily I hit an ace and doubled through, basically ensuring my victory. Folded the next few hands and watched the turtle eventually bust when he finally found a hand to go with – 88 - facing two raisers, smart move.

As much as I hate poker and all its bad-beat bullshit whorish soul crushing losses that it hands to you, these wins do certainly make up for it, even if I didn’t really win anything but 9k FPP.

Let’s see if I can repeat my 2nd place performance in the Monte Carlo event, that would truly make my year a golden one.

Your move...

Quick little post. This is a question to you, whoever is reading this.

Imagine yourself in my shoes here - what would your move be? How would you play this hand? I ask this because I truly have no answer. I have no idea how to play this hand the way that the cards came.

The game is a $55 buy-in, turbo sit&go on Poker Stars.

It is about 20 hands into the tournament, and you have no real read on your opponent (DokterD). He doubled up early with AA vs KK preflop, which really doesn't tell you much. The starting chips are:

Seat 6: RikkiDee (1450 in chips)
Seat 7: DokterD (3990 in chips)
There are 6 other players still alive in the tournament, but they arn't involved in the hand.

You are in the SB, he is the BB, it is folded to you.

RikkiDee: posts small blind 50
DokterD: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ad As]

You are dealt aces, a hand that makes you or breaks you. Fortunately, a raise in this position is generally considered a stealing raise, so I think it is mandatory to raise here. While limping is obvioulsy an option, it isn't what I did so lets play along.

RikkiDee: raises 200 to 300
DokterD: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Qs Ts Kd]

Alright, not my choice of flops, but obviously you can't assume you are beat, and you can't give any free cards to someone with any pair, a jack or spades, so I'm pretty sure a continuation bet is mandatory here. Again, a lot of opponents will read your preflop raise and continuation bet as an extended steal, and may still put you on a bluff. It's certainly possible as I've played a thousand hands like this as a bluff. Again, for the purposes of this game, lets assume you bet here, as I did.

RikkiDee: bets 400
DokterD: calls 400
*** TURN *** [Qs Ts Kd] [Ks]

Ok, here is where I'm leaving it up to you, if you are still with me. Some things to think about. He called your preflop raise and your flop bet. Unless he is still putting you on complete bluff and wants to just take the pot away on the turn, he has at least something that hit this flop. Now, the turn brings probabbly the worst card in the deck for you, pairing the king, as well as bringing the possible spade flush. So if he has 2 spades, or any king, you are beat. Of course, it isn't guaranteed that he has either of these, but you wern't happy with that turn card. On the other hand, you do have the draw to the nut flush with your ace, as well as a gutshot straight draw, a royal flush draw if the jack of spades comes and hey, an ace could come, giving you the nut full house, so you probabbly have some outs if you assume you are indeed beat.

Ok the pot is now 1350 and you have 750 remaining. Your opponent has you covered big time.

Your options are:

A) Push all in. Make him pay for the draw if he has a hand like QJ or JT. If he has you beat, he has you beat.
B) Check, and see what he does. If he puts you all in, you assume he has you beat and despite your possible outs, fold.
C) Check, and see what he does. If he puts you all in, you hope he is bluffing or has a worse hand and by checking you induced a bluff. If indeed he does have you beat with a King or small flush, you can still out draw him.
D) Assume you are beat, fold without contest.

Personally, I lean towards D

Studies have shown that 60% of the time, pocket aces win, every time

This is a new one for me.

*Bad beat alert*

But it is of the humorous brand, or at least that’s what I tell myself to keep myself sane.

Alright, so I was playing my usual 8 tournaments, when I picked up AA at two tables simultaneously. On one table I’m faced with a 4bb raise, from a player I have a good amount of data on. He has a VPIP over 40% which basically means he is a loose player (read: fish), and I can probably expect a call if I push him all in right now since his raise looked of the type of a pocket pair. Actually the hand history tells the story just fine (notice the times).

2006/01/26 - 20:05:34 (ET)
Table '18702726 1' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Evvvvo13 (2665 in chips)
Seat 2: cdf1983 (2095 in chips)
Seat 4: RikkiDee (1445 in chips)
Seat 5: 444$$$333 (1150 in chips)
Seat 6: Olback (1755 in chips)
Seat 7: tobyone (1480 in chips)
Seat 8: SDIMOPOULOS (1440 in chips)
Seat 9: crumbs (1470 in chips)
444$$$333: posts small blind 15
Olback: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ac Ah]
tobyone: folds
SDIMOPOULOS: folds
crumbs: folds
Evvvvo13: calls 30
cdf1983: raises 90 to 120
RikkiDee: raises 1325 to 1445 and is all-in
444$$$333: folds
Olback: folds
Evvvvo13: folds
cdf1983: calls 1325
cdf1983 said, "nh"
*** FLOP *** [Td 6h 5c]
*** TURN *** [Td 6h 5c] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [Td 6h 5c 5s] [Jc]
RikkiDee said, "well done"
cdf1983 said, "YES!!!"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cdf1983: shows [Th Ts] (a full house, Tens full of Fives)
RikkiDee: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Fives)
cdf1983 said, "ty"
cdf1983 collected 2965 from pot

No biggie, happens all the time. I am just glad bad players like this exist, blah blah blah. But what about that other table? I have aces on it, whats happening?

2006/01/26 - 20:05:57 (ET)
Table '18702993 1' Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: gk2400 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: pitapuff (1390 in chips)
Seat 3: mfiler (1150 in chips)
Seat 4: Olback (1470 in chips)
Seat 5: RaT05 (1320 in chips)
Seat 6: suarzo (1690 in chips)
Seat 7: gomenlb (1470 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (1480 in chips)
Seat 9: chizam (2030 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 10
chizam: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ac Ah]
gk2400: folds
pitapuff: raises 40 to 60
mfiler: calls 60
Olback: folds
RaT05: folds
suarzo: calls 60
gomenlb: folds
RikkiDee: raises 240 to 300
chizam: folds
pitapuff: calls 240
mfiler: calls 240
suarzo: folds
*** FLOP *** [7s Ts 6h]
RikkiDee: bets 500
pitapuff: raises 590 to 1090 and is all-in
mfiler: folds
RikkiDee: calls 590
*** TURN *** [7s Ts 6h] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [7s Ts 6h 8d] [Js]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Ac Ah] (a pair of Aces)
pitapuff: shows [As Ks] (a flush, Ace high)
pitapuff collected 3160 from pot

As you see I tend to push my aces hard early game, since people basically never give you credit for a hand early in a tournament, even if I bash them over the head with re-raises. And to my opponents credit, other than the slightly loose preflop call (I wouldn’t call there, but I would assume the majority of players would call with AKs), it is going to be pretty hard to lay down AK there with the nut flush draw and 2 overs. But it is just really strange that these two hands happened basically simultaneously. And since I have this poker blog and all, I thought, hey, that’s somewhat interesting, lets post it.

One last funny thing about that last tournament – after I lost AA to AKs, I was left with:

Seat 8: RikkiDee (90 in chips)

Basically a write off, but hey, very next hand:

Dealt to RikkiDee [Kc Ks]
RikkiDee collected 405 from pot

And I’m somewhat back in it. Let’s see where I went from here. 5 hands later:

Seat 8: RikkiDee (355 in chips)
Dealt to RikkiDee [As Ad]
RikkiDee collected 760 from pot

Not bad, still short stacked but hey, I’ll take it. What’s next?

Seat 8: RikkiDee (860 in chips)
Dealt to RikkiDee [As 4d]
RikkiDee collected 1820 from pot

I’ll bet you are wondering how I managed to double up there. Let’s just say there was an all in and a suckout involved. But now I’m firmly back in this, me likey.

Eventually it all led to this…

Seat 8: RikkiDee (6530 in chips)
Seat 9: chizam (6970 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts the ante 50
chizam: posts the ante 50
chizam: posts small blind 300
RikkiDee: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [As Qs]
chizam: raises 1800 to 2400
RikkiDee: raises 4080 to 6480 and is all-in
chizam: calls 4080
*** FLOP *** [6s Ah Kh]
RikkiDee said, "king coming"
*** TURN *** [6s Ah Kh] [2c]
RikkiDee said, "no worries"
*** RIVER *** [6s Ah Kh 2c] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [As Qs] (three of a kind, Aces)
chizam: shows [Qd Ks] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
RikkiDee collected 13060 from pot

And that’s the game my friends, a first place finish after being down to 90 mutha fuckin chips. So if that was Gods way of working in mysterious ways to balance out the AA suckouts, then I’ll accept that. At least it gave me some material for a post.

Playing favorites

I have no clue where this originated but for some reason QTs is my favorite hand. I remember thinking about it one day, consciously aware that I was winning more with QTs. Of course that is bullshit, but it’s always fun to have some gimmicks to keep you from being completely robotic. It actually gets me in trouble sometimes because I end up playing it in situations when I shouldn’t, usually when I get bored.

But then sometimes, my irrationality pays off and I reassure myself that there is indeed something special about that stupid hand. Times like… today. You knew that was coming right?

slampinski99: posts small blind $1
RikkiDee: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qh Th]

Hey look, QTs!

meister9675: folds
Diesel3113: raises $2 to $4
Joda: folds
Cool DG: calls $4
slampinski99: folds
RikkiDee: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [Kh Ah 9d]

Can anyone guess whats coming?

RikkiDee: checks
Diesel3113: checks
Cool DG: checks
*** TURN *** [Kh Ah 9d] [Qs]

Wait for it…

RikkiDee: bets $4
Diesel3113: calls $4
Cool DG: raises $4 to $8
RikkiDee: calls $4
Diesel3113: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [Kh Ah 9d Qs] [Jh]

And boom goes the dynamite!

RikkiDee: checks
Diesel3113: bets $4
Cool DG: calls $4
RikkiDee: raises $4 to $8
Diesel3113: calls $4
Cool DG: calls $4
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Qh Th] (a Royal Flush)
Diesel3113: mucks hand
Cool DG: mucks hand
RikkiDee collected $59 from pot

This is my second royal flush of all time. Strangly they both happened in fixed limit, and both times I got decent action. My first royal was strangely enough with with QTs (hearts) as well and I got lucky that my opponent had pocket aces that he hit trips with. Anyways, after this victory I don’t think my retarded side will let me fold QTs for the rest of my life - too much anecdotal evidence to.

Some day I’ll tell you about my least favorite hand, 97o!

Postin' aint easy

It’s been a while since I’ve posted some non-doomsday, woe-is-me, selfish quality posts. So let’s throw up some hand histories over the past few days. Sure, it won’t win the post of the year award, but at least it will (may?) be entertaining.

First hand – “The worst call of all time”

This happened today at a $25 turbo game. No reads, early in tournament.

Seat 1: Kretsche2 (1325 in chips)
Seat 2: MOEGIE (1195 in chips)
Seat 3: Goucho1 (1375 in chips)
Seat 4: skins2112 (380 in chips)
Seat 5: DrStranglife (1140 in chips)
Seat 6: mikas_pot (2030 in chips)
Seat 7: Rushead (1505 in chips)
Seat 8: Trap Setter (3165 in chips)
Seat 9: RikkiDee (1385 in chips)
DrStranglife: posts small blind 15
mikas_pot: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Tc Ac]
Rushead: folds
Trap Setter: folds
RikkiDee: calls 30
Kretsche2: raises 90 to 120
MOEGIE: calls 120
Goucho1: folds
skins2112: folds
DrStranglife: folds
mikas_pot: calls 90
RikkiDee: calls 90

In my past super tight games I would fold ATs, but I’ve learned that in these turbo games, a double up early makes life real easy, so I’ve been starting to see flops with these medium strength hands. Anyways, back to the hand.

*** FLOP *** [8c 9c Jd]

What a freaking flop, nut flush and open ended straight draw with an overcard. Technically, against any hand but a made straight I am statistically the favorite here. So lets get our money in while the odds are on our side.

mikas_pot: checks
RikkiDee: checks
Kretsche2: bets 180

Preflop raiser makes his continuation bet, but because it is against 4 opponents, I have to give him credit for at least an overpair, perhaps a set.

MOEGIE: calls 180
mikas_pot: folds
RikkiDee: raises 1085 to 1265 and is all-in
Kretsche2: calls 1025 and is all-in
MOEGIE: folds
*** TURN *** [8c 9c Jd] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [8c 9c Jd 9h] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Tc Ac] (a pair of Nines)
Kretsche2: shows [Ah Kc] (a pair of Nines - King kicker)
Kretsche2 collected 3085 from pot

There you go. 18 outs - missed them all. The man calls a check raise (all in) with nothing. Seriously nothing. Ace high, no draw, unless you count his mighty “pair” draw, or runner-runner straight. And it wasn’t a mistake. I talked to him after, and asked him why he called. He gave the standard fish answer, “I figured you were bluffing”. And yes, I was. Is this guy a pro then? Of course not. If I was playing my hand face up against a pro, they would fold with AK there. AK beats absolutely nothing I could possibly make that check raise with. Actually, why am I even discussing this? Everyone knows it was a bad call, lets just laugh.

Hand 2 – “Best preflop raise ever”

Seat 1: tom90cu (1738 in chips)
Seat 4: Go Ducks (2490 in chips)
Seat 5: Pier85 (3597 in chips)
Seat 6: GrootyHooter (2760 in chips)
Seat 7: Mootle (1400 in chips)
Seat 9: RikkiDee (1515 in chips)
Mootle: posts small blind 50
RikkiDee: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [3d 7c]
tom90cu: calls 100
Go Ducks: folds
Pier85: folds
GrootyHooter: folds
Mootle: calls 50
RikkiDee: raises 100 to 200
tom90cu: folds
Mootle: folds
RikkiDee said, "bahaha"
RikkiDee collected 350 from pot
RikkiDee: doesn't show hand

This was a misclick raise, one of the hazards of multi-tabling. Or is it???? Never seen anyone ever fold to this raise, and they both did. Very strange.

Actually that’s it, I can’t think of any others off hand that are in the same ballpark of ridiculousness. I will leave you with some random thoughts/questions.

Why do people *call* raises late game with low pocket pairs? Unless you are a fucking mind reader, it is almost impossible to know if you are ahead when 3 overcards come. I can see reraising with a low pair, but calling just makes no sense to me. This is especially frustrating when said fish calls with his 22, hits his miracle set and takes you out. If you are willing to call with 22, then you should be calling with any 2 cards. By the way, we are talking late game, when the blinds are so big that its pretty much all in or fold once the flop comes.

Conversely, why do people raise with really low pocket pairs? Especially early game. I *may* see your point late game when blind stealing is a factor, but early, from early position, why are you raising with 33? What is that raise going to accomplish? I see it all the time too. Yesterday I saw someone raise just 3bb with 22 when there were 3 limpers in already. That is just hilariously stupid. And of course he hit his set on the flop. Ok fish, if you are reading this, can you just answer me why you raise with 44 from first position? And then what do you do when the flop comes AT6 and 2 people called you? Actually, fuck AT6, what do you do when 58T comes? Still three overcards, whats your move?

Another hilarious strange fish play that involves low pocket pairs is when a fish limps in with 44, and is faced with someone raising all in – it’s folded to them, and they call! Why do you do this fish? Just please email me and tell me why. Guaranteed they have at least 2 overcards making it a cointoss at very best, and at worst, when they have even 55, you are smoked. So what is up with this play?

Ok, I guess I just had low pocket pairs on the mind. Hopefully I can come up with some more diverse content in the future. Till then, keep on keepin on.

Motivation such an aggravation

When I think back on pretty much everything I haven’t done in my life, it is generally due to a simple lack of motivation.

It takes my lazy ass a lot to get motivated.

Most motivations in life come in the form of some sort of intangible long term gain for your work now. This is why I suck at school. I can’t see the direct result of my studying so I just don’t do it.

Poker is different.

You get results right away, in the form of $$$. There is a direct correlation of skill level and revenue. Sure, luck sometimes skews the results, but generally, the better you are, the more you make.

But it’s not all that simple. Just like studying for school, it seems that poker has that element to it as well. You can’t learn calculus playing Warcraft, so you can’t learn poker playing Warcraft. It’s the same thing really. You do have to put study time in - reading up on strategies, analyzing your game, etc. And, as in school, the more time you put in, the more you truly learn. So how have I been able to take a studious, motivated approach to poker while my school studies have always been lacking?

Well I imagine that some of it has to do with that I actually like playing poker. Additionally, I am choosing to play poker, while school is just well, not much of a choice. And as previously mentioned, I have a hard time seeing the end result of studying without numerous checkpoints along the way.

But this lack of motivation is biting me in the ass right now. Even though I have definitely improved throughout the year, and I can see that my poker studies have paid off, there still is a lack of motivation to actually play.

Since I’ve started playing full time, I’ve lost that love of just playing that I had when I just played recreationally. I play now when I tell myself to. Since 8-tabling SNG’s isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs, it actually translates into work sometimes. So sometimes I find myself just sitting on the computer, doing the same sort of useless shit that I used to do when avoiding school work. It’s sad really, since this character flaw of mine will prevent me from ever making any real cash and will eventually cap my skill at the game since I won’t see the point of learning more. I hate to admit it, but almost every day I play for only 2-3 hours, ring in a small profit and shut down for the day. And since I don’t have any real financial motivations to continue playing more than the bills dictate, I’ll never reach any higher levels. Well, of course that isn’t entirely true, but if a normal ambitious person was in my shoes, with my exact skill set, they could turn my life into a $100k/year job. It’s just a matter of motivation.

It's Turbo Time

The Turbo SNG table experiment I talked about in my last post has really thrown me off my game. Every time I think I have the game figured out, something really strange happens and I have to re-evaluate my approach. I’ve have experienced more variance and poor results in the past 5 days than the entire duration of my SNG experience. However, I am winning on the whole, but the wins seem to come in chunks. Each run consists of 8 tables at a time. I’ve played a total of 186 games, with average winning per table at a very mediocre $2.33. At first, I was dominating, an in my first 100 games I had only one losing run. But since then its been loss after loss. I can’t pinpoint where the leak is, that is if a leak exists at all. Due to the nature of these quick games, luck is such a factor that if you don’t pick up any good hands, you are going to lose no matter what.

What these games really come down to is the late game. Once it gets down to 4-5 players, the blinds are generally around 200-400, which means everyone is pressured to accumulate chips. It’s a delicate balance trying to sneak into the money and trying to accumulate chips to avoid the blinds eating you. For example, say you have KT on the button and it is folded to you, you have 2500 in chips with the blinds 200/400. The SB has 1500 in chips and you are down to the final four. One of you isn’t getting paid. The BB has 3500 and has shown that he will call all-ins with much less than he should (any ace, any pair, any 2 cards above 9). If you push all in from the button and steal the blinds/antes your stack will be elevated to around 3200, twice as much as the competing short stack. However, your problem of course is, that someone in the blinds may have picked up a hand they will call you with. Now while KT is statistically favored against two blind hands, do you really want to take that chance when you could just fold and force the SB to push against that calling station in the BB? There are a ton of these types of scenarios that come late game, and since the blinds get so big so fast, there is no room for blind stealing without pushing all in. Its very difficult to consistently come up with a correct move for each situation. What it usually comes down to is two short stacks waiting each other out until either the blinds really become a factor and they are forced to push / call with any 2 cards, or that they actually pick up a strong hand and get some action with it. I’m not sure if the smart play is to constantly push, hoping to pick up the blinds/antes while chipping up against your competition, or just sit back and wait for semi-strong hands to push where you are sure you will be a decent favorite against all but the strongest of hands, as well as hoping your opponent will bust before you. I guess it depends on how aggressive your opponents have been, as well as how likely they are to call an all in. Probably the most annoying thing about bubble play is when you push with a semi strong hand like A9 or KJ and get called by total trash like J9, K5 or A2. Players with that low of calling requirements make this little dance around the bubble extremely frustrating and difficult. Since if you are short stacked, you really do have to push occasionally with total crap in hopes to pick up the blinds. But when you are called by absolute garbage, you just can’t help but get angry, especially when the caller is somewhat short stacked themselves. Perhaps it is just a feature of the semi-low limits that I’ve been playing ($25) where they just like to gamble or something, but it happens way more times than I would like.

What has been truly helpful has been the installation and registration of my new poker helper, PokerAce HUD. It’s a third party software that overlays the statistics of your opponents right on your screen. It tells you how often they put money in the pot (VPIP), how often they raise preflop and how aggressive they are. And the more times I play against certain opponents, the better, since you’ll get a more accurate set of data. If you notice that someone has a high VPIP, you know they like to see flops and are pretty loose. These are the types that you want to avoid when pushing late game, as they are apt to call you with anything. It’s really helpful when multitabling since I can’t get a strong read on anyone by paying attention. I just glance at their numbers and make my move. If someone has a high preflop raise %, then I know that they are raising with shit like any ace, QT and the likes and I can play off them accordingly, knowing that my hands are actually stronger than they appear. I am happy I finally registered the thing so that it works on multiple tables. Hopefully as I continue to use it I will be able to exploit my opponents characteristics more efficiently, based on my experience with this program.

All in all, I’m not sure if I am loving these turbo tournaments. The amount of luck involved late game makes for a lot of headaches that have nothing to do with your choices or skill. But, I sure can get a lot of games in per day to compensate for that loss of late game skill. Really, if I just make sure I’m constantly making +EV decisions, like any play in poker, it will pay off in the long run. It just seems that the edges that you have to push are so slim most of the time that they it is hard to notice that you are making the right decisions. Its all about confirming to yourself that you are making the right play, and in the face of bad results, continue to play exactly the same way. Its tough, especially when on an extended losing streak, but hey, that’s poker.

Yet another change in plans

I’ve always been aware the 2+2 forums since I started playing poker, but I’ve never really put much value in what anyone was saying, figuring it was a bunch of elitist “know-it-alls” making fun of anyone posting a bad hand - with a bad layout. And it is. But, it also has some decent information in there, as well as some actual knowledgeable and helpful posters. As well as the home of my dad, Dan Harrington, so how bad could it be?

Throughout this weekend, I’ve been reading as much info on SNG’s as I possibly can. While most of the posts about SNG’s are of the “what should I do with this hand in this spot” nature, there are some really decent posts regarding improving ROI, maximizing $/hour, efficient table selection and multi-tabling. What’s interesting is that there is this whole SNG multi-tabling culture that everyone seems to be a part of there. It is quite common for people to be 10+ tabling even $200 buy-in games. What shocked me though is that for the most part, everyone, good and average players, are all playing on Party Poker.

For those unfamiliar, Party Poker’s SNG structure is vastly different from Poker Stars’. First, you start off with only 800 chips compared to 1500 at Stars. Additionally, the blinds start at 15/30 rather than 10/20 and go up every 10 hands, rather than Stars’ 10 minute blinds. This makes for exceedingly fast games, where skill is much less of a factor. My first reaction to this was, why were all these “pros” wasting their time on Party when they could undoubtedly have a much higher ROI% at Stars, if they indeed are skillful. I searched all over for a direct answer for this, but nothing satisfactory came up. Eventually someone mentioned that Party offers a nice rakeback program, basically giving a % of their rake that they pay back to them, depending on how often they play. Seemed like kind of a weak answer to me. I mean, Stars has a new improved FPP system, which has to compare at least somewhat. What was I missing? Then it hit me. It was posted before, just so subtle I glanced over it. The players are not concerned solely with ROI%, they are first and foremost concerned with $/HOUR – which makes complete sense. Who cares if you are getting a better ROI% when you could be making much more $/hour by simply playing more games? And since the Party games take half as long as Stars games, they can get that many more in, within the same amount of time. And to be honest, time is as important a variable as any, especially if you are trying to grind out a living.

So they’ve all become masters at the late game push or fold strategy. Once the blinds get to a certain level, its push time if you weren’t lucky enough to double up early. They have done extensive calculations as to what hands are +EV to push against your opponents calling range. I know, where’s the skill and fun in that? Well obviously they aren’t that concerned with all that. They are concerned with the only thing that any poker player should be concerned with, $/hour. I can’t believe I missed that.

Now, I’m not abandoning the Stars ship. I’m just too damn comfortable playing there right now. But I am going to give this strategy a go. How do I do that? The answer is turbo games. I’ve never really paid much attention to those blue turbo games at Stars before. I never saw the need for them unless you were short on time and desperate to play a tournament. Other than that, the blinds move up way too fast to make it any more than an all in luckfest. But that is essentially what I want. Since the blinds in turbos are 5 minutes less than the regular games, I can essentially play twice as much in the same amount of time. Yes, I’ll be giving up a little bit of my edge over the field, but that will hopefully be overcome by the increased $/hour. Additionally, you receive more FPP/hour this was as well as slightly less rake % (i.e. $20+2 regular SNG verses $25+2 turbo SNG). I can also probably play more tables as I really am giving up all reads and move ability just to play strictly ABC, mathematically correct push / fold strategy. No reads necessary. Well, not as many. My newly registered PokerAce Hud should help me out with the reads.

So far I’ve ran three trial runs of 22 games total at the $25+2 level. My results so are decent:

1st – 3
2nd – 5
3rd – 2

Total buy in: $600
Total Revenue: $765
ROI%: 27.5
Profit: $165
Total Time: 1.5 hours
$/Hour: $110/hour

The only thing that upsets me is that I fear that I’ll become so dependant on the push or fold strategy that I’ll start using it too much. Using it too much in cash games, other tournaments and live games could really screw me up. Additionally I’ll never really improve my tournament or cash game. It will basically stagnate. Do I want to be stuck in turbo mode just to increase my $/hour? At the moment, I can’t say for sure, since I’ve only played one day. I need to try this for a month or so to get a good understanding of its implications. But I imagine I’ll continue to throw in the odd tournament and cash game here and there to keep myself grounded / sane.

So heres to another experiment. Watch in 2 weeks I’ll be playing at Party… sick.

Late night report from a 500 FPP tournament:

It gets really exciting so read on.

Well, actually the first bit was pretty tame as I ended up folding the first 40 or so hands. FPP tournaments are notorious for extremely loose and bad play, so I need a hand to play early. I finally pick up a somewhat decent hand, and it plays out like so;

NauticaMCP2: posts small blind 25
flu0618: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [7c 7d]
RikkiDee: calls 50
SwoopWH: folds
RealAzteca: folds
A+TNT=$: folds
pedzing: folds
Skilled G: folds
NauticaMCP2: calls 25
flu0618: raises 100 to 150
RikkiDee: calls 100
NauticaMCP2: folds

At this point, this raise could mean anything, but since the size of the raise wasn’t too small (the type to just gain control of the hand) or too large (doesn’t want a call). I was on alert.

*** FLOP *** [7s Js Ad]
flu0618: checks
RikkiDee: checks

At this point, I don’t love my hand as aces are a very real possibility. But I do have trips and maybe he has AK and is “slowplaying”

*** TURN *** [7s Js Ad] [4h]
flu0618: checks
RikkiDee: checks

This check is actually pretty weak in hindsight, I figured, if he just had one ace, he would be the turn no doubt. If he has aces or maybe AJ he is still checking here. Really, I should bet this as he could have nothing but hope and wants to see the river.

*** RIVER *** [7s Js Ad 4h] [7h]
flu0618: checks

With his final check, and my four of a kind, I figure, I’m either doubling up through this guy or nothing.

RikkiDee: bets 1360 and is all-in
flu0618: calls 1360
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [7c 7d] (four of a kind, Sevens)
flu0618: shows [As Ac] (a full house, Aces full of Sevens)
RikkiDee collected 3045 from pot

Hilarious. For once in my life, my instincts in poker are actually right. Granted, I don’t think I could have gotten away from an all in if it came to that and I still only had trips, but still, my read was dead on, and that is sick. Side note, this guy played his hand so badly it’s not even funny. But people think aces are indestructible, and I guess trip aces must be even better.

So I float around for another 50 hands or so, donking off a few hundred chips here and there to various hands. It is then where I make the ultra donk play of calling off all my chips facing a big re-raise with TT. Normally, I can fold that pretty easy, but something was telling me that I had him. Well I was wrong as he flips over KK but after the turn gave me an open ended straight draw, it was completed on the river and I’m doubled up after a stupid play.

After that double up I’m sitting at about 5k in chips with the blinds at 100/200. I tell myself that the TT double up was my only suckout allowed, and from here on in, just play normal solid poker and make the final table.

A few hands later, blinds 100/200 still with 25 antes, I pick up QQ on the button facing one limper (super fish station). I pop it up to 800 and everyone folds but the limper who insta-calls. He is the chip leader at our table and has me out-chipped about 3-1. The flop is an ok 6d8sTs. Not my choice of flops with this fish as my opponent but hey, I still got queens. So he bets right into me, indicating to me that he is somewhat weak, so I push, he calls with JT and doesn’t improve and I’m up to 10k in chips. Very nice.

At this point I do another brain check to make sure I don’t do anything stupid. I’m in good shape, lets be selectively aggressive, make sure to have a hand most of the time if possible and make the final table.

I end up calling a relatively short stacked player’s all in with AT while I was in the BB. They had threes and I didn’t improve. I’m down to 6.5k. Blinds at 200/400. Urmghph.

Few hands later, I have Jacks, opponent has eights, we get all in preflop, I win. Back up to 10k.

I end up chipping myself up by stealing a few blinds and flops, and find myself with 13.5k when I’m faced with a min-raise from the SB. I play this one so badly it deserves a hand history.

Mit-Mer: posts small blind 400
RikkiDee: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qh 8d]
chaseee said, "i will catch u eventually mikey"
mikey16455: folds
Ch@rmed: folds
sevup: folds
simplye: folds
chaseee: folds
slimfast: folds
Mit-Mer: raises 800 to 1600
RikkiDee: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [5s 6c 9h]
mikey16455 said, "catch me if you can"
Mit-Mer: bets 1600
mikey16455 said, "big boy"
RikkiDee: raises 5600 to 7200
Mit-Mer: calls 2915 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [5s 6c 9h] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [5s 6c 9h Qc] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mit-Mer: shows [Ad Ac] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
RikkiDee: shows [Qh 8d] (three of a kind, Queens)
RikkiDee collected 12630 from pot

Terrible, I know. First of all, I can’t fold to a min raise from a short stack if I’m in the BB. It’s just not mathematically correct. Secondly, people min raise with 2 things, junk and very strong hands. I figured, well, I can beat nothing if I raise here, and hey, I got that gutshot draw. But basically, this play is so bad it’s not even worth justifying. Even if he has nothing he is almost compelled to call simply due to pot odds. I mean, of course he had aces, why should I be surprised, but aces just don’t beat running queens like they used to. GG!

So after that unpleasantness I decided that there is no way I’m making any more moves with the shit that I just pulled off in front of everyone. But at least I kind of established that my blind isn’t going to be fuxord with. I’m up to 20k and feelin good with blinds 400/800 and about 30 remaining.

Of course, I don’t listen to myself and a few hands later, I decide to attack the only calling station at the table’s blind. I raise with 9Ts, he calls. Flop is K66, he checks I bet, he calls. I’m done with the hand. Turn is another K, check-check. River check-check, he wins with A5. Nice calls. I’m down to 10k with blinds 600/1200, not good.

With 20 left and me short stacked, I’m pretty much in push or fold mode. Stealing the blinds/antes: good. Getting called: bad. But I end up pushing like 5 times and end up stealing every time, chipping my way somewhat back up. I end up getting from 7k to 25k by just stealing blinds, no calls at all. With about 14 left, I pick up the definitive mediocre hand, AJs and faced with an all in raise from a short stack in front of me, well, lets view the hand history.

Seat 1: ericfish (31817 in chips)
Seat 2: Snomankw (19515 in chips)
Seat 3: JKoff86 (24329 in chips)
Seat 4: REKIMOTO (37647 in chips)
Seat 5: koolzie (6572 in chips)
Seat 6: scrulnik (28430 in chips)
Seat 7: RikkiDee (25169 in chips)
Seat 9: Glider1 (33152 in chips)
ericfish: posts small blind 1500
Snomankw: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Js As]
JKoff86: folds
REKIMOTO: folds
koolzie: raises 3422 to 6422 and is all-in
scrulnik: folds
RikkiDee: raises 18597 to 25019 and is all-in
Glider1: folds
ericfish: folds
Snomankw: folds
*** FLOP *** [8s 5h 3d]
*** TURN *** [8s 5h 3d] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [8s 5h 3d 2h] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
koolzie: shows [Ts Ks] (a pair of Threes)
RikkiDee: shows [Js As] (a pair of Threes - Ace kicker)
RikkiDee collected 18544 from pot

I decide that my opponent could be moving in with any range of hands here since he only has about twice the big blind, and that I’m a favorite to many, especially if he has an ace, which I basically put him on. My only fear is that someone behind me will pick up a hand, but we’ll have to take that chance. Normally I might just call here, hoping to get the blinds to call as well, and check the hand down to maximize the chance of busting the short stack, but I need these chips desperately and if I win this hand I’m pretty much golden. So yea, I’m golden after this and with 13 left, I steal 1-2 more blinds and pack it in for the night sitting in third place.

So there you have it. From a field of 250, down to 9, and I’m there. Always a good feeling. So what did I win? Well, with what was essentially a free entry (500 fpp) I gained entry ($215) to the $500,000 guaranteed tournament that runs on Sundays. Generally these things get like thousands of entrants, so I’m not overly excited about actually competing in it. I have unregistered from the tournament and I now have $215 in “tournament $” that I can use for any tournament or sit&go. Which is great really, since I need money for sit&go’s. So essentially, I won $215, since it is going to future sit&go entries that I would pay for anyways. Pretty freaking sweet if you ask me.

I've joined about 6-8 of these 500 fpp tourneys in my life, and this is the first I've won. Earlier this week I made it to the final 15, when I went out with AA vs QQ preflop. I had the aces, and a nice chip stack, but couldn't dodge a Q so I was out in 15th place, just missing the final 9. If that hand held up that would be 2 this week, so it is safe to say that I'll be joining these at every opportunity. And since I've become a SILVERSTAR VIP player at stars, those FPP's come in even quicker.

Efficient Sit & Go Play

So I’ve been doing some research on this whole multi-tabling sit&go thing the past few days – some interesting results have occurred. At the 2+2 forums, they have a sit&go section, or what they call “stt’s”, which stands for single table tournaments. Anyways, there is a lot of discussion about how to play certain hands in certain situations, but what I was looking for, was some statistics and strategies on multi-tabling.

I found it here and if you have any interest whatsoever in multi-tabling tournaments, you should definitely give it a read. Apparently, multi-tabling sit&go’s is quite common amongst this crowd. Basically, the poster took a ton of data from a bunch of different multi-tablers in an attempt to quantify some truths about sit&go’s. Certainly, a heroic task to take on, but he did a pretty good job. He attempted to answer a list of very important questions, questions that seem to have no obvious answer, but by the use of empirical data over a large sample size, seems to have come up with a relatively reasonable evaluation for sit&go results.

The questions he asked:

• What's the highest ITM (in the money) possible at each level?
• What's the highest ROI possible at each level?
• When should I move up?
• How big of a bankroll do I need to play SNGs?
• Should I quit my job today, or after 500 more SNGs?
• How can I tell if I'm really good at this game, or if I'm just a luckbox on a turbo-steamer?

Clearly, the first two questions are the only ones that have anything close to a definite answer, simply due to the fact that their answer is based purely on statistics and mathematics, with the others being mostly personally derived. So I’ll discuss his first two questions and then give my opinions on the others.

He claims that over his (large) sample size, the highest long term expected is 44.4%. Looking at my statistics, I’m sitting right around there with an average of 45.23%. Clearly, my sample size of a few hundred is no where near the infinite amount needed to define long term success, but it’s good to know I’m on the right track. He mentions that he knows a lot of people over 44.4% but eludes to the fact that variance and long term play will smooth out their percentage to this so called mathematical ceiling. Quite interesting indeed, that there is a theoretical breaking point of how often you can finish in the money. On a mathematical level, it makes sense, no one of any skill level can avoid the luck factor, so there has to be some number that is the maximum. How he derived this exact number, I’m not sure, and I suspect that despite his best efforts, he is probably not 100% accurate on that, but it’s in the right ballpark for sure.

Similarly to the ITM question, the ROI question brings up the same sort of mathematical dilemma. If you accept the fact that there is a statistical maximum of ITM%, then a statistical maximum for ROI must be a possibility as well. They are not one and the same though. Right now I could alter my game to maximize my ITM% but it would actually hurt my ROI, since I would be giving up on too many +EV situations where I would be limping into third, rather than gaining more chips for a first or second finish. But they certainly are related. He divides the expected ROI for a “great” player into the different levels of buy-ins. What I assume he means by “great” player is top 10% of all players. His results are listed below.

A great $6/$11 player can probably sustain 30% or so.
A great $22/$33 player can probably sustain 22% or so.
A great $55 player can probably sustain 18% or so.
A great $109 player can probably sustain 12% or so.
A great $215 player can probably sustain 6% or so.

So again, I’m slightly above his predictions with about a 24% ROI, but again, my sample size is somewhat insufficient to provide any real evidence of long term trends. What is interesting is the drop-off in ROI as you move up in levels. Without looking at the data, I’m not sure I would make the same assumption, or at least, I wouldn’t assume that the drop-off would be so dramatic. At the moment, I’m in a transitional period, trying to make the move from $33 to $55. If his data is accurate and I should expect a lowered ROI when I reach $55 outright, I will still be increasing my total real money gained from $7.26/game to $9.90/game. Add in the increased FPP points and increased skill and you have yourself a winning option, despite lowered ROI. These numbers are reassuring to say the least. I’m glad I’ve stumbled my way into the winning ROI levels without ever really doing a lot of research or tinkering of my game. Of course I’ve done a lot of research and studying about playing poker in general, but none to actually maximize my ROI on multi-tabling. Obviously I need to start doing that, since there is always room for improvement, but according to this poster, not much.

The last four questions are all personal preferences. I’ll give my personal short and sweet answers to each one.

When should I move up?
When I was moving up I did it by pure feel and comfort (without the use of poker tracker), so I can’t give any sort of answer that has any quantitative base. However, that comfort that allowed me to move up was essentially based on the fact that I was making enough to justify the upgrade. I honestly wouldn’t worry about ROI all that much when making this decision. If you have the bankroll to support a few lost buy-ins and you are getting a positive ROI, then move up. Why not? Just don’t move out of your comfort zone too fast as you’ll end up playing scared and getting really pissed off when you lose.

How big of a bankroll do I need to play SNGs?
This, I have no clue. The response given by the poster is something ridiculous like 50 buy-ins in case of a terrible swing. But I just don’t see it. I don’t see it possible to loose 50 buy-ins if you have a decent game and a +ROI over a decent sample size. However, this is the point that the poster is trying to hammer home – you aren’t as good as you think you are and you will run unlucky eventually. So if I had to give my personal answer, without his post in mind, I would say that you need about 20 buy-ins if you are 6-tabling. Now I did just pull that number out of my ass, but it seems about right. Of course you need enough just to buy in to your target games, which is 6*buy-in right there. And if you happen to bust out of all of them, you’ll need more. But busting out more than 3 times (18 games total with no money finishes) seems completely unreasonable. It would have to be an extraordinary run of bad luck to lose that much. However, this being said, I assume you are a winning player with a +ROI and multi-tabling experience to attempt this in the first place. Remember no one starts playing 6 tables at $55. I would imagine that pretty much everyone but the already wealthy start playing at the $5 games and work their way up.

Should I quit my job today, or after 500 more SNGs?
Well, I think the existence of this blog answers this question. But what is interesting, is that a lot of people prefer SNGs to cash games for income. Where it would seem that cash games, if you are skilled enough, is where the real money is at. At this point in time, I definitely prefer SNGs, but that is just because I’m a pussy, and can’t stomach the big losses in cash games. Anyways, if you are getting 20%+ ROI on your game, you can theoretically do that all day and make a good profit. The problem becomes stamina and boredom. The poster keeps on the fact that no matter how good you think you are, you are going to lose eventually. Certainly a grim perspective, but its always good to have a reality check, especially from someone who at least has some data to back it up.

How can I tell if I'm really good at this game, or if I'm just a luckbox on a turbo-steamer?
The poster goes into huge detail here asking what reasons you think you are good at poker. He goes a little overboard implying that unless you’ve graduated from MIT with 40 years of poker study, played 5,000,000 hands, you are probably just lucky. Personally, I don’t figure myself to be an amazing poker player. I have way too many weak leaks in my game, and I know I can be way too passive and “foldy”. I can also outtrick myself too often, and end up pushing my stack in on bluffs for no good reason. However, I do know that I am better than the average player. I’ve done a lot of research, I’ve played a lot and I think about poker all the time. I have to be better than the “average” player. I’m not the best, far from it, but I am decent, which if you are honest and analytical will your results; you can come to this conclusion yourself.

So that’s that. A pretty good post by him if you ask me, despite the multiple references to the doomsday scenario. On one hand this post reassured me that at the moment, I’m doing very well. On the other hand, it kept my head level by reminding me that it can all go down in flames, so you must remain sharp and improving. I think it is pretty safe to say that I’ll be sticking with my SNG strategy until I’m either bored, burnt out or go broke, as it seems to be a relatively safe way to make money. Off to the tables I go, wish me luck, it seems I need it.

Shut up your face

I need to learn to keep my stupid big mouth shut.

There is something strange about the correlation of times that I post good results and the absolutely horrid day that follows. It’s happened three times now and it’s becoming less funny each time.

Losing $500 in one day is unbelievably hard to deal with. I just sit there and stare at my depleted bankroll, much like how Scrooge McDuck used to stare blankly at his gold vault every time the bad guys figured out a way to steal it. And if you don’t get the reference, then just imagine a sad looking man staring at his computer screen, with all hope and life taken from his facial expression.

I havn’t had a run like this yet, and I just don’t understand why it happened.

The day started off terrible, losing $70 on the first hand dealt in a cash game. Picked up top two pair and lost to a running set, always fun.

Then, I decided to just play sit&go’s, as I have come to the realization that cash games are reserved for good players, which doesn’t include me. So with my first run, I get slapped around for a total loss of $188. Ok, well, let us try another run without the $50 game. BAM! Bitch slapped again for a loss of $165. By this point I’m tilting pretty bad, and decide to write about it – which brings us here.

So I’m going to commit a cardinal poker blogging sin, I’m going to post the beats that took me out. So if you are one of those purists who can’t stand reading bad beats, then click here – I’ll talk to you later. If not, read on and share in my misery.

Seat 1: SVRacer (1510 in chips)
Seat 3: maxover (4190 in chips)
Seat 4: Silverrain (1480 in chips)
Seat 5: RikkiDee (1145 in chips)
Seat 8: Gingy18 (2205 in chips)
Seat 9: prince andre (2970 in chips)
Silverrain: posts small blind 15
RikkiDee: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qc Qh]
Gingy18: folds
prince andre: calls 30
SVRacer: raises 150 to 180
maxover has timed out
maxover: folds
maxover is sitting out
Silverrain: folds
maxover has returned
RikkiDee: raises 180 to 360
prince andre: folds
SVRacer: calls 180
*** FLOP *** [Js 5s 3s]
RikkiDee: bets 785 and is all-in
SVRacer: calls 785
RikkiDee said, "wow"
*** TURN *** [Js 5s 3s] [Jc]
RikkiDee said, "i hope you win"
*** RIVER *** [Js 5s 3s Jc] [6s]
RikkiDee said, "nh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Qc Qh] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
SVRacer: shows [9s Ad] (a flush, Jack high)
SVRacer collected 2335 from pot

Yea, so the guy raises 9bb with A9, which is fine, maybe he was just stealing, but when I come over the top, you gotta respect it. Although looking at the size of the reraise, I guess I should have gone bigger. However, it is the flop all in call that really makes me smile. It is definitely in the top 10 of the worst calls that I’ve gone out on, next.

Seat 1: bberard34 (2345 in chips)
Seat 2: Adam Greear (4835 in chips)
Seat 4: RikkiDee (1065 in chips)
Seat 5: fastplayer77 (1915 in chips)
Seat 8: fortune1 (1850 in chips)
Seat 9: vbhokie (1490 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 15
fastplayer77: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qd Qc]
fortune1: folds
vbhokie: folds
bberard34: raises 60 to 90
Adam Greear: calls 90
RikkiDee: raises 210 to 300
fastplayer77: folds
bberard34: folds
Adam Greear: calls 210
*** FLOP *** [5d 8d 6s]
RikkiDee: checks
Adam Greear: bets 180
RikkiDee: raises 585 to 765 and is all-in
Adam Greear: calls 585
RikkiDee said, "oh man"
*** TURN *** [5d 8d 6s] [As]
RikkiDee said, "stay away from him"
*** RIVER *** [5d 8d 6s As] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Qd Qc] (a pair of Queens)
Adam Greear: shows [6d 6c] (three of a kind, Sixes)
Adam Greear collected 2250 from pot

Another one that pretty much played itself. At the time I was checking to him since he had been bluffing the shit out of the table all game. And I am clearly not going to fold an overpair here, I’ll let him bluff at it. Well, it worked out well for me I must say. GG.

Seat 1: RikkiDee (2800 in chips)
Seat 2: Gingy18 (2030 in chips)
Seat 4: ipuffallday (5125 in chips)
Seat 9: spunkyrivers (3545 in chips)
spunkyrivers: posts small blind 100
RikkiDee: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Kh As]
Gingy18: folds
ipuffallday: folds
spunkyrivers: raises 600 to 800
RikkiDee: raises 2000 to 2800 and is all-in
spunkyrivers: calls 2000
*** FLOP *** [6d 9h 4c]
spunkyrivers said, "nh"
*** TURN *** [6d 9h 4c] [Qd]
RikkiDee said, "ugh"
*** RIVER *** [6d 9h 4c Qd] [Js]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
spunkyrivers: shows [Ah Qc] (a pair of Queens)
RikkiDee: shows [Kh As] (high card Ace)
spunkyrivers collected 5600 from pot

Classic suckout, what can I do.

Seat 1: DaWhaleShark (850 in chips)
Seat 2: utgfather (1795 in chips)
Seat 3: RikkiDee (1655 in chips)
Seat 6: burnanturn (9200 in chips)
utgfather: posts small blind 75
RikkiDee: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ah Js]
burnanturn: raises 450 to 600
DaWhaleShark: folds
utgfather: folds
RikkiDee: calls 450
*** FLOP *** [2c 6d Ad]
RikkiDee: checks
burnanturn: bets 750
RikkiDee: raises 305 to 1055 and is all-in
burnanturn: calls 305
*** TURN *** [2c 6d Ad] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [2c 6d Ad 7d] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Ah Js] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
burnanturn: shows [7s 7c] (a full house, Sevens full of Deuces)
RikkiDee said, "why me"
burnanturn collected 3385 from pot

One of my personal favorites. Just feels so good to get 2 outted after making the right play. Oh not to mention, on the bubble.

Seat 1: SHUASHUA (5875 in chips)
Seat 4: RikkiDee (3580 in chips)
Seat 7: mambreno (2060 in chips)
Seat 9: Watunga (1985 in chips)
Watunga: posts small blind 100
SHUASHUA: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [As Tc]
RikkiDee: raises 400 to 600
mambreno: folds
Watunga: folds
SHUASHUA: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [Ac 7d Ts]
SHUASHUA: checks
RikkiDee: bets 600
SHUASHUA: calls 600
*** TURN *** [Ac 7d Ts] [Qd]
SHUASHUA: checks
RikkiDee: bets 800
SHUASHUA: calls 800
*** RIVER *** [Ac 7d Ts Qd] [3h]
SHUASHUA: bets 3875 and is all-in
RikkiDee: calls 1580 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SHUASHUA: shows [Ks Js] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
RikkiDee: shows [As Tc] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
SHUASHUA collected 7260 from pot

This one I don’t know what to say really. I mean, I always have trouble with these types of strange, out of turn bets. I clearly can’t fold a 1580 bet for a 5.5k pot with a strong 2 pair here, so I figured he either had A3 or a missed draw. Another bubble bustout.

Table '17687505 1' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 7: Roman149 (3120 in chips)
Seat 8: RikkiDee (2095 in chips)
Seat 9: dead$$$333 (8285 in chips)
Roman149: posts small blind 100
RikkiDee: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Th Ts]
dead$$$333: raises 400 to 600
Roman149: folds
RikkiDee: raises 1495 to 2095 and is all-in
dead$$$333: calls 1495
*** FLOP *** [5d 3s 8d]
*** TURN *** [5d 3s 8d] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [5d 3s 8d 2h] [6h]
RikkiDee said, "heh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Th Ts] (a pair of Tens)
dead$$$333: shows [4h 4d] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
RikkiDee said, "not my day"
dead$$$333 collected 4290 from pot

My only place of the day - a third. You can’t be happier getting all your money in with a pair over pair, but yea, meh.

And that isn’t even including the plethora of coinflips I lost, which were too numerous and boring to post. So all in all, I guess it just wasn’t my day. But I have to wonder; are there a lot of these days to come in the future? I don’t think my frail psyche can take it.

Oh lets do one more, this time, one where I made the mistake, sorta. I'll preface this by saying that this was my 2nd last surviving tournament, and like I said I was pretty tiltly at this point. One thing that really really bothers me is when I limp in with a playable hand from the SB, only to receive a big raise from the BB. I would say it happens 60-70% of the time that I limp, but I still don't have the discipline to lay down hands like J9 and A5 to the bb. So I end up limping, then folding a lot, and it really pisses me off. It especially pisses me off since I know at least 90% of the time they are raising with trash, so this time, I decided to "take a stand". Lets see how it worked out.

Seat 1: RikkiDee (1315 in chips)
Seat 3: Rreevdoncu (1390 in chips)
Seat 4: Jay 74 (1780 in chips)
Seat 5: Henke11 (425 in chips)
Seat 6: MiketheKid2 (3445 in chips)
Seat 8: mojoman2000 (2740 in chips)
Seat 9: wisp7752 (2405 in chips)
RikkiDee: posts small blind 25
Rreevdoncu: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Qc 8d]
Jay 74: folds
Henke11: folds
MiketheKid2: folds
mojoman2000: folds
wisp7752: folds
RikkiDee: calls 25
Rreevdoncu: raises 150 to 200
RikkiDee: raises 1115 to 1315 and is all-in
Rreevdoncu: calls 1115
*** FLOP *** [7c 6h Ah]
RikkiDee said, "you gotta be kidding me"
*** TURN *** [7c 6h Ah] [3d]
*** RIVER *** [7c 6h Ah 3d] [Th]
Rreevdoncu said, ":)"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [Qc 8d] (high card Ace)
Rreevdoncu: shows [Kd 9d] (high card Ace - King kicker)
Rreevdoncu collected 2630 from pot

Sure, I made a dumb play by going all in with Q8. It was tilt induced and I know that. But come on, at least call me with an ace or something.

Best value bet ever

How often do you get called bluffing and win the hand?

I've never experienced it before, and probabbly had the best laugh of the year when this happened...

jamiedallair: posts small blind 10
RikkiDee: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [As Td]
Up4Poker: calls 20
DaveyZ49: folds
SPEBillybong: folds
opy1: folds
Solid'N'Sexy: folds
LLL1994: folds
Schwarkman: folds
jamiedallair: folds
RikkiDee: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qs 2s Kh]
RikkiDee: checks
Up4Poker: checks
*** TURN *** [Qs 2s Kh] [5h]
RikkiDee: checks
Up4Poker: bets 80
RikkiDee: raises 80 to 240
Up4Poker: calls 160
*** RIVER *** [Qs 2s Kh 5h] [Qh]
RikkiDee: bets 400
Up4Poker: calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RikkiDee: shows [As Td] (a pair of Queens)
Up4Poker: mucks hand
RikkiDee collected 1330 from pot

For some reason I decide to check raise the turn, no clue why. I get stubborn and try to take the pot hoping he would lay down a small pair of some sort on the end (kind of a stupid play if he was willing to call the turn check raise). Looking at this hand in hindsight I probabbly should have just checked the river, seeing as if he was a typical opponent, he is going to call there no matter what he has, and if he has a hand like JT or a missed flush draw, I would have him beat anyways. I guess the only thing this bet does is prevents *him* from taking the pot away from *me*. But if someone calls my check raise and I have ace high, I'm not thinking I have the best hand.

Anyways, anyone want to know what he had? Guesses?

Oh one more hand before we go.

I've always wanted to do this, and always told myself if I ever got AA on the first hand of a tourney, I would go all in, hoping some idiot would call with something stupid since everyone on hand one is an idiot. So hey, here I am with AA on the first hand! Only the second time in my life that I've been dealt them first hand. Who wants to guess what happened?

Table '17813757 1' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: silentdeceit (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: willydills (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: PokerParadox (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: whereismy420 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: bick31 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: turtle553 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Financial_QB (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: jsoufia (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: RikkiDee (1500 in chips)
willydills: posts small blind 10
PokerParadox: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [Ac As]
whereismy420: calls 20
bick31: calls 20
turtle553: folds
Financial_QB: calls 20
jsoufia: folds
RikkiDee: raises 1480 to 1500 and is all-in
silentdeceit: folds
willydills: folds
PokerParadox: folds
whereismy420: folds
bick31: folds
Financial_QB: calls 1480 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [3d 8c Qs]
*** TURN *** [3d 8c Qs] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [3d 8c Qs 3h] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Financial_QB: shows [8h 8d] (a full house, Eights full of Queens)
RikkiDee: shows [Ac As] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
Financial_QB said, "gg"
Financial_QB collected 3070 from pot
Financial_QB said, "lol"

Well... it's a good idea in theory! First hand, out! You have to respect someone calling a rediculously oversized all in raise with 88, I mean, what does 88 beat? Even if I have two overcards its a coin flip, why bother? Oh well, I guess I should be glad that fish like this exist for my next AA first hand experience.

I prefer to stand and go

It’s sort of funny how this 6-tabling sit&go experiment started out, and more importantly how it has progressed. I started out playing 6-$5 games, just for fun one day, out of shear boredom. I hadn’t heard about anyone doing it, and thought that it would be an interesting adventure. I hadn’t had much experience multitabling at all up to that point. The most multitabling I had done was 2-3 at once playing cash games. But once I started actually winning more than I was losing, I decided to try higher limits. And so it went, from $5 to $10 to $20, until I started throwing in the odd $30 game here and there. Still showing an overall positive ROI (return on investment), I went all out and played 6-$30 games. And here we are today, still showing a positive ROI over hundreds of games played. Sure, it hurts when you bust out of 5 of 6 and get only third in the 6th, but they are rare occurrences, and are balanced out by the times you win 3 of 6 and place in the top 3 in the remaining 3. Overall, somehow someway, I’m guaranteeing myself a long run success rate at the original level of sit&go that I played.

This phenomenon, I realized today, shouldn’t even be possible. And when I say not possible, I mean not possible for me. It was obvious to me today, when my girlfriend called me from work. I was playing 6 as usual, and could barely hold a conversation with her while on the phone. This pattern of trying to talk on the phone while doing something has plagued me my whole life. I’ve been addicted to a lot of video games, and every time someone tried to call me while playing, I’ve been a non-responsive, can’t do two things at once, idiot.

So it made me wonder, how can a person as dumb as me, who can’t concentrate on 2 simple things at once like a phone call and a video game, dominate the sit&go tables (maybe dominate is too strong a word?)? I truthfully don’t know, and I imagine that someone who could do two things at once, would do much better than me. So while my multi-tabling skills have improved, my multi-tasking skills have remained constant. An interesting relationship!

Lately, I’ve been throwing in a few $50 sit&go’s in to the mix of my regular games. I’ve done this for each level of buy-in that I’ve moved up to. I stay on the one buy-in for like hundreds of games, then I gradually work the next level into the mix. I never thought I would even reach $30, let alone surpass it, but here we are. The $50 game honestly used to scare the shit out of me, but I’ve actually been holding my own so far. My ROI on the $50 tables is actually a few points higher than the $30 games. I can’t imagine myself loading up 6 $50 games at once, but hey, if I can do it with the same level of skill why not? What is interesting, as I look at my poker tracker database, is that the statistics for each level of buy-in have remained almost identical ($5 buy in is slightly skewed). Which either means that the players at each level are not all that different from each other, or that my natural progression of limits has progressed along with my skill level, basically evening everything out. It wouldn’t be that bad of an assumption either way, but it is interesting to note.

Some stats you want? Sure, let’s see em.













I’ve read a bit about other players who multi-table sit&go’s. Most results I’ve read have ROI% anywhere from 10-50%, so while I could be happier, at least my “I” is getting a “R”. Truthfully I am still surprised that I’ve made a profit over this large of sample size. I would really like to know where I stand in the grand scheme of things. Are there really players out there getting 50% ROI multi-tabling 6 or more? I’d like to see it.

Some interesting notes from these results. As you can see, the ROI from the $20-$50 games are all about the same, as well as the % finished in the money and the average total finish - giving evidence to my theory that sit&go players are not all that much different from each other despite buy in size. Additionally, it is also interesting to note that I've finished 1st quite a bit more often than 2nd and 3rd, which truthfully I wouldn't have guessed if I had to ballpark it. It feels that I get 2nd even more than I get first, but I guess you always remember your painfull losses more vividly than your wins.

The next obvious step would be to identify leaks in my game, in order to boost that ROI up to around 30%. Off the top of my head, I think I need to bluff more. Just simple bluffs, like when it is checked to me in position, or taking stabs at orphan pots from the BB. Of course I have to be aware of the frequency of my bets so I don’t get a lot of playback by players putting me on bluffs, but I think I’ve gotten to the point where I can actually keep track of what is going on at each table individually enough to make such plays. Additionally, I find myself short stacked at least 50% of the time going into the final 6 or so, so I imagine I need a better way to accumulate at least a bit more chips in the early rounds. Perhaps I need to start limping with some marginal-ish hands or something. But it is hard to make plays with marginal hands though, since you can’t get a lot of reads on players unless they make some fantastically obvious play that would immediately label them a fish or calling station (or what I refer to as a fish station).

So all in all, I’m currently pretty happy with the way things have gone, and I see no reason why my results should start to dissipate. It will still be pretty crazy loading up 6 $50 games at once, but hey, that’s what I thought when I was playing $10 games and thinking about the $30 games.

Here’s to 2006, the year of the sit&go.

Hand of the year nominations

I know it is early in the year, but I’m putting this hand up for hand of the year. From an earlier 9 player, $30+3 buy in sit&go, 2nd hand of game.

Preflop: Hero is CO with Ad, 4s.
UTG calls t20, 1 fold, MP1 calls t20, MP2 raises to t60, MP3 calls t60, 1 fold, Button calls t60, SB raises to t160, BB calls t140, UTG folds, MP1 folds, MP2 raises to t1240, MP3 raises to t1810, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds.
Flop: (t3470) Jh, 8h, Th (2 players)
Turn: (t3470) 5h (2 players)
River: (t3470) Tc (2 players)
Final Pot: t3470
MP2 has Kd Kc (two pair, kings and tens).
MP3 has 7h 9h (straight flush, jack high).
Outcome: MP3 wins t3470.

So MP3 ended up calling an early raise, then pushing all in after *2* more reraises, with 79s. Oh, and he flopped a straight flush to crack the early limp-reraisers kings. I’ve played a lot of tourneys, and seen a lot of really terrible play early on, but this by far takes the cake.

Here is the best hand I played today, lets see if we can identify the mistake!

Preflop: Hero is MP with 3c, 3h.
1 fold, Hero calls t30, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.
Flop: (t90) 4c, 6c, 2h (3 players)
SB bets t60, BB calls t60, Hero calls t60. <--no thats not even the mistake!
Turn: (t270) 5h (3 players)
SB bets t120, BB calls t120, Hero raises to t420, SB calls t300, BB folds.
River: (t1230) Td (2 players)
SB bets t150, Hero raises to t600, SB raises to t2150, Hero calls t1550.
Final Pot: t5530

Ok what do you think of my play? Yes, I’m aware I didn’t post the results of the hand. I want you to think of what my opponent could have had. Here, I make a pretty loose call on the flop with 33, hoping in vain that either I have the best hand, or that I hit my gutshot/trips to take a large pot. Well I got my wish! Hit my miracle gutshot on the turn, and raised due to the fact that 2 flush draws are out there. My opponent, after calling my turn reraise, decides to min-bet me on the river. And we all know how we feel about min bets! From my 6-tabling-not-really-paying-a-whole-lof-of-attention deduction, that was a classic weak lead from a player not wanting to get reraised, so what do we do when someone does that? We raise! Oh wait, he reraised me all in? What could he possibly have? He bet the flop and turn, and just called my turn reraise. I honestly couldn’t put him on any hand except a set. Another 3 didn’t make sense, and 37 didn’t make a whole lot of sense either. So I thought he is either a fish with a set or we are splitting this pot, hence, I call. Ok I’ll post the results now, since I can feel the suspense building to an unhealthy level.

SB has 7c 8h (straight, eight high).
Hero has 3c 3h (straight, six high).
Outcome: SB wins t5530.

Gasp?!? If the first hand I posted today with the straight flush was the worst played hand of the year, I would nominate this one that this guy pulled on me as the actual best played hand of the year. Other than the fact that he sort of risked a flush suckout on the turn by just calling my reraise, he played this to perfection. The added “weak lead” on the river was such a nice move by him that I have to stand up and applaud. He must know how I feel about weak leads. But it’s not like I called with top pair, I did have a straight, an almost impossible laydown I would imagine, but I would have rather not gone all in with it (3rd nuts and all). He must have put me on a 3 on the turn, damn, ownage.

Oh one last hand while I have it in memory. It’s not all that uncommon but it’s always funny when aces get cracked. With that introduction I give you, “aces cracked, in D minor”

(the D stands for DAMN)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ad, As.
Hero calls t100, BB raises to t2200, Hero raises to t4710, BB calls t2485.
Flop: (t9395) Jd, 4c, 5d (2 players)
Turn: (t9395) 4s (2 players)
River: (t9395) Kc (2 players)
Final Pot: t9395

Hero has Ad As (two pair, aces and fours).
BB has Qc 4d (three of a kind, fours).
Outcome: BB wins t9395.

There is almost no feeling in the world as good as when you set a trap in no limit hold’em and it works. And there is an equally paralleled bad feeling when said trap backfires on you via suckout. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Oh, btw, Patriots dominate, put your house/car/bankroll on them for the superbowl. They sure did put Jacksonville and their joke schedule in their place didn't they? Booyakasha!

One last thing... I'm not sure if I like this hand converter thing. Any thoughts? I can't decide if its easier to read than just posting the hand histories. I think the colours could use some work too...

Aight, pace I’m outta hea

From a young G's perspective

It’s been tough getting back into the poker playing groove – but surprisingly my results haven’t suffered that much. My first two days back I booked over $200 each day, by only playing a total of 12 sit&go’s, which is pretty impressive in itself.

But I just haven’t been feeling it. I haven’t been feeling the need to play. I find myself worrying more and more about potential losses than potential winnings. Too often I rest on my winnings for the day and try to book a win, rather than ride the momentum to book a big win.

I suspect the reason for this is partially due to my money situation, and partially due to my natural risk aversion. Up to this point, I’ve had a decent savings to fall back on in case this whole poker experiment didn’t work out. But with moving to a new city with much higher living expenses and a really expensive holiday season, my cash flow has been noticeably depleting. I’m not desperate yet, but it definitely has been lingering in the back of my mind when playing, which can’t be good.

A quick note about risk aversion in poker.

When I play poker, I find myself imagining the absolute worst case scenario almost every hand. By being the victim of ungodly amounts of bullshit terrible play, I’ve essentially whittled my hand confidence down to the point where I need the immortal nuts to make plays. Every time my top pair top kicker has been rivered by top pair worse kicker that makes two pair, or every time my set has been rivered by a draw getting there, it sheds a layer off my aggression. I remember all those painful beats, and even though I know I make the mathematically correct play in those instances, I still feel the need to slow down if any of my bets are called unless I’m holding the nuts. Needless to say, this is a terrible way to play poker. You have to value bet your hands, and if you get sucked out, so be it. Take the chances and play strong aggressive poker, I know. But it’s just my nature to be afraid of the uncertain. So my recommendation to you is, when calculating risk, fuck it in the ass. Fuck that slutty bitch right up the poop shoot. Risk is your bitch, and don’t let it fuck you.

Too bad it is the complete opposite for me, which is why I feel I’ll never be a superstar poker player. Don’t be like me.

Ok back to the lecture at hand.

So I’ve reached a crossroads. I haven’t been overly thrilled about my results so far. Sure I’ve won some money, but I could have made about the same in a job, without the risk and headache of losing. But of course, the big advantage of poker is the non-gay-bullshit-waking up at 7am-sucking up to a dickless piece of shit boss-forced interaction with useless co-workers-and showering that I’m really in this for. And since poker income and potential job income are pretty much the same, the headaches from losing are not even in the same ballpark as the bullshit that a job entails. But I still worry. I worry that one day I’ll loose more than I can handle. I worry that the risk aversion monster will continue to take over my psyche to reduce my play to shit status. I worry that even if I do continue to scrape by, where is this all going? I can’t play mediocre poker forever can I?

All that speculation is great, but at this point, I can’t imagine myself ever going back to work. And I’m so serious about that it isn’t funny. I’ll admit - I’ve contemplated suicide to avoid work.

I need to take a minute out of this post to just detail a tournament I’ve been playing while I’ve been writing this. About 2 hours ago, I noticed that a 600 FPP tournament was starting in 45 minutes. At the time I had about 570 FPP, and quickly loaded up four tables to get to 600 just in time for the registration. I love these things. With 77 entrants and top 10 going to the next satellite, I love my chances. But this just wasn’t my fucking tournament. Actually it just hasn’t been my fucking day today. Here is a quick rundown of the match, using my new hand converter toy

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with Kc, Ac.

UTG calls t20, Hero raises to t60, 2 folds, CO calls t60, Button raises to t100, 2 folds, UTG calls t80, Hero calls t40, CO calls t40.
Flop: (t430) 3c, 7c, Qd (4 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks, CO checks, Button bets t120, UTG folds, Hero calls t120, CO folds.
Turn: (t670) 4s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t1480 and is all-in, Hero folds

Final Pot: t670

This hand is about 5 hands into the tournament, and by no means am I crippled, but this is pretty much the epitome of how my games have been going. Sure, I played it pretty cautious with 2 overcards and the nut flush draw, and I think I give way too much respect to min-raisers preflop, but I can’t exactly be too confident making a move on the flop with four players seeing that flop after lots of action preflop. So I just call. And then comes the ridiculous overbet all in, what can I do? However, this is just a precursor.

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Kc, Kd.
2 folds, MP1 calls t20, Hero raises to t80, 1 fold, CO calls t80, 2 folds, BB calls t60, MP1 calls t60.
Flop: (t330) 8s, Ac, As (4 players)
BB checks, MP1 bets t80, Hero calls t80, CO folds, BB folds.
Turn: (t490) 4s (2 players)
MP1 bets t791 (All-In), Hero folds.
Final Pot: t1281

The table up to this point had been incredibly loose and aggressive, which is pretty standard for FPP tourneys I guess. And when you get kings or aces at a super loose table, it can only mean one of two things, a double up or a bustout. In this case I managed to “dodge” a bustout, which was pretty easy given the board I was up against. I mean, with 4 callers of my raise preflop, should I just fold when the flop comes with aces? Not to mention the turn flush arriving, lets just move on. I went on to fold literally 30 straight hands when this hand came along, needless to say it looked like aces to me.

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 5s, 5h.
3 folds, Hero raises to t200, 2 folds, SB calls t175, BB calls t150.
Flop: (t600) 3c, 2h, As (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks.
Turn: (t600) 3d (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t500 (All-In), SB calls t500, BB folds.
River: (t1600) Qd (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: t1600

Hero has 5s 5h (two pair, fives and threes).
SB has 3s 3h (four of a kind, threes).
Outcome: SB wins t1600.

If I raise preflop without an ace, and I get two callers, and an ace comes on the flop, I’m basically 99% percent done with the hand. But if they check to me twice, I have to assume I have the best hand, or someone is slow playing a real fucking monster. So yea, it was a monster, but how often are you against trips or quads in this situation? Either way, it just sucks. Those are the only 3 hands I played, and lost all three. Glad I got excited about playing.

Ahem, back to the lecture at hand?

Can’t even remember what I was saying, lets look… Oh yea, work and poker. Needless to say I am still undecided about my future, but at the moment, as much as I hate to admit it, I think I’ll need a job sooner rather than later. But if poker picks up, or I somehow manage to grow a set of balls and play, then perhaps things may change.

Poker and Creativity

Occasionally, when watching a WPT or WSOP episode, an announcer will refer to a player as “creative”. Generally this means that said player can put any 2 cards together to take down a pot. And generally the best players in the world have this ability.

So what is there to be said about creativity in poker? And how does one improve their creativity? Does a winning player need to be a creative player?

Creativity is something that seems almost innate to a human being. Some people have it, others don’t, or have much less of it. Throughout my life I have always been thankful that I had been raised and taught with a solid foundation of math and science. I have always been a numbers guy, doing well in math and science, you know - logical stuff. However, being of this mind can get you into trouble when you are forced to be creative.

Without getting to much into my limited philosophical understanding of life, I feel that in order to be truly creative (and if you look at the worlds greatest “creators” you will see this common theme) you must create something that has never been seen, heard or even thought of by anyone including you. If someone draws a painting or writes a song, the product that is ultimately produced will generally be a conglomeration of every song/painting that they’ve seen or heard, where they take what they liked about them and made it their own. New creation? Not exactly. But it is new in the sense that no one has seen that exact song or painting before. Basically what I’m getting at is the more creative you are, the more you can take what you’ve experienced and turn it into something different. Being the logical person that I am, whenever I try to create something, I take a very logical approach. Say I was writing a song with my guitar. I would essentially “program” the song in my mind, taking bits and pieces of every other song I’ve ever heard before and combine them in some sort of way that sounded coherent. But what I feel a truly creative person would do, is basically invent something completely different, putting together riffs and chords that have never existed before to create something that is truly unique. Because I am trapped in a mathematical world where 2+2 has to equal 4, and chords A + C = sound good, I can’t break out of that box to create. A creative person can. They see beyond the math that contains me, and takes it to a different level.

Ok that paragraph was a little crazy, but I hope it made sense. Now to the poker application of all this.

By being mathematical and logical about your game, you can really only go so far. You learn what hands have +EV to play, and play them accordingly. You know that when you flop trips, mathematically you will be ahead so often that it is +EV to call someone’s all in reraise. You learn about the probability of drawing and pot odds and all that. You know about position and how it mathematically changes the hand. So you have all that, and you are probably going to be a strong player, and if you remain disciplined, you will most likely become a wining player. But, any decent player playing against you, who is aware of your logical play, can take you out by exploiting exactly the types of things that you can’t even fathom in your little math world.

I find myself doing the same plays over and over again while playing online. I play hands the same way almost every time. I basically play them the way that they are supposed to be played, based on the probability that I am beat or have someone beat. I sometimes reflect on the plays I make and laugh at my own robotic idiocy. I know that if anyone is really paying attention to me, they can figure me out and dominate me, but since I havn’t run into enough players that have this ability, I will continue playing ABC (+EV) poker.

So if playing solid logic poker is +EV, then what is solid logical creative play? You guessed it: ++EV. And boy did I exhaust my creative resources to come up with that term. Once you understand the math and all that stuff that goes with it, you advance to the next level of play – exploiting the math guys.

A quick example.

You are a creative genius sitting to the right of a multi-tabling math master (no limit cash game). You have seen him raise preflop with the standard top 20~ hands depending on position. You have seen him make continuation bets on the flop after being called. You have 5s6s and are faced with his opening raise. You are the only caller and the flop comes Ts8h4d. Knowing pretty much exactly how he plays, at this point he either has two overcards or an overpair. He makes his continuation bet and you are faced with a bet representing an overpair, or at least a hand that is better than 5s6s. What do you do? You call. His next action will determine your move. If he has 2 overcards, being a math man will force him to check the turn. He knows it is almost always –EV to fire a 2nd bullet, especially while multi-tabling where reads on his opponents are sparse. He will almost always continue to fire that 2nd bet if he indeed does have an overpair, where you can then decide to continue with your hand, knowing almost exactly what he has. You can even get really tricky by reraising his turn bet, representing a really strong hand, if you have seen him make laydowns in this situation.

Basically you are just exploiting the math that binds him.

In this situation, if the math master was a bit more creative, he would mix up his play. If he had the mind to check/call with overpairs and fire 2nd bullets with overcards occasionally, it would be almost impossible to get a read on him.

I unfortunately am stuck in the math master mould, unable to break free of my captors, and subsequently giving away pots to more observant and intelligent players. My plays are designed to be +EV against basically terrible opponents who don’t know what my bets mean, or against equally math minded individuals. Against smart observant players, they will be –EV. However, as long as I continue to play against unobservant players I will continue with my robotic, uncreative play.