2nd Video

2nd vid turned out better quality wise (although the audio is a bit delayed) but the action was pretty slow. Hopefully next vid I can get some more big pots in.

And sorry about the ghetto hosting service too, some day I will not be poor.















CLICK PIC!!

New posts

I have a new video ready to go but for some reason I'm having a bitch of a time trying to upload it.

In the meantime, here is a pic of my session from tonight. Guess which hand I should have stopped at!















IF YOU SAID HAND ZERO YOU ARE CORRECT!!! LOL POKER

Just another addition to my crumbling month of shit. Started off amazing, and is ending worse than Hilter's bar mitzvah (it makes sense). I actually haven't won a god damn dime since something like April 10th and I've played every day.

wah wah whine whine meow chow. Life sucks and then you marry one.

Heres a free poker lesson.

Dealt to tokenblak [ Th 8h ]
crawf33 folds.
jozxyqkq folds.
tokenblak raises [$7 USD]
manny654 raises [$17 USD]
teamd607 folds.
tokenblak calls [$11 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 9s, Js ]
manny654 bets [$36 USD]
tokenblak calls [$36 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4c ]
manny654 bets [$66 USD]
tokenblak calls [$66 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6s ]
manny654 checks.
tokenblak is all-In.
manny654 calls [$179.95 USD]
manny654 shows [ Qs, Qd ]two pairs, Queens and Sixes.
tokenblak doesn't show [ Th, 8h ]a pair of Sixes.
manny654 wins $599.90 USD from the main pot with two pairs, Queens and Sixes

The lesson is:
NEVER FUCKING BLUFF IN ONLINE POKER

I make it rain

Still playing a light amount this month, which sucks because I'm playing really well. Or running really well - one of those. And since the response on the video was overwhelming, I'm planning on doing another one! Thats right! A NEW VIDEO IN PLANNING!!!!

!!!WOW!!!

As for improvements on the video, I think the next one I'll play just 2 tables, as 4 tables can get confusing to watch as well as commentate on. Also I think I'll be able to get the resolution up for the next one, making it easier to watch.

***

Its kind of sad really, the amount of hours I play in a month. I've been saying it for a year and its still true. I am a pussy. Or I am lazy - one of those. Or both? Yes both.

I could actually be ballin' pretty hard if I played on average 5-6 hours a day. I mean its not hard and I with that extra money I could be making it rain on ho's like it was my birthday.

Ending this short post with a hand I thought was most interesting.

I call it - "LEVELED!"

I made this play specifically because of the opponents involved in the hand. My first opponent "Mid11111" is the epitome of a fish. Basically sucks, can never fold, etc. The second opponent, "skoriy" is a decent player. If you really want to understand the essence of this hand, watch closely how skoriy plays.

Seat 4: mid11111 ( $ 118 USD )
Seat 6: skoriy ( $ 566.55 USD )
Seat 1: tokenblak ( $ 407.25 USD )
Seat 3: Bighoss1111 ( $ 182.67 USD )
Seat 5: pulverkaffe ( $ 199 USD )
Seat 2: B_UN1T604 ( $ 193.10 USD )
skoriy posts small blind [$ 1 USD].
tokenblak posts big blind [$ 2 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to tokenblak [ Qh As ]
B_UN1T604 folds
Bighoss1111 calls [$ 2 USD]
mid11111 raises [$ 4 USD]
pulverkaffe folds
skoriy calls [$ 3 USD]
tokenblak raises [$ 20 USD]

Here I make a squeeze type raise from the blinds. Normally I don't necessarily need a hand as good as AQ here to make this raise, but because I know mid11111 is calling every single raise I make preflop, I need to have at least a decent hand to play. Its mostly an isolation raise as I don't really expect skoriy to call as he can't be that strong.

Bighoss1111 folds
mid11111 calls [$ 18 USD]
skoriy calls [$ 18 USD]

To my surprise he does. He took his time to call, which leads me to believe he has a pocket pair. We are both pretty deep with $400+ each, so he figures if he hits his set, he can make a lot. I know he is a decent player, so he can't have anything more than TT here, as he would definitely reraise the donk with anything better.

** Dealing Flop ** [ Ks, 4c, 4h ]
skoriy checks
tokenblak bets [$ 35 USD]
mid11111 folds
skoriy raises [$ 87 USD]

Pretty safe flop for a continuation bet. The donk folds, and to my surprise skoriy raises. Now since I put him on a pair preflop, I have to continue with my read. There is basically no way he is sticking around with something like KQ or KJ preflop, and AK he would have reraised, so he doesn't have a king (and probably wouldn't check raise it even if he did). So I still have him on a mid pair and is raising as a sort of information/bluff.

tokenblak calls [$ 52 USD]

I took my time with this call, debating between a reraise and a call. I figured a reraise would look too suspicious as the flop is very dry, but it probably still would get him to fold his mid pair. A call here from me, tells him he is beat, no doubt. Now it is just a matter of me betting him off his hand.

** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
skoriy checks
tokenblak bets [$ 80 USD]
skoriy folds

Notice the board reads KK44, so if I have a king, which he truly has to be worried about, I now have a boat. I still am not sure what the best bet here is. I bet like 1/4th of the pot, trying to represent a milking type bet with the nut boat and it worked here. If he didn't fold to this I made it small enough that he wouldn't be pot committed to call my big river bet when I made it. Here is a situation where I try to play it like I would if I had the hand I'm representing, but if he did call my turn bet, I would have to bet more than I usually would on the river for him to fold. Either way, I think he was legitimately scared of what I had, and I just had to blow on the pot for him to fold, but not all opponents play like this.

Its really just an example of playing a level of thinking above your opponents. Here my opponent knew that I could be squeezing preflop and bluffing on the flop, and decided that his pair may be the best hand. I just knew that he knew that, and took it one step further.

Poker can be fun.

Shit can happen

Edit - Video actually works now

So no posts in a while, mostly due to real life kicking the shit out of me. I have played a bit this month, and have actually done really well, which is quite timely due to my restricted playing time. We've been thinking of moving out of Toronto, back to our home town to buy a house. Toronto is a decent town, but its too fucking busy, and expensive. I'd rather not pay rent for the next 5 years of my life, and buying a house in Toronto simply isn't an option due to the ridiculously inflated prices here. So for the past week or so we've been doing a lot of research and shit, trying to figure out the most +EV move.

Anyways, enough of that noise. I made a video of myself playing on Party last night. I wanted to start doing this a while ago but never got around to it. Its about a 45 minute video that you'll have to download from rapidshare if you want to watch. If there are any problems with the video or the download, let me know.

It was the first time I had done anything like this, so at times I was a bit distracted, and ended up misreading a few boards, and spouting random filler babble, but on the whole I'm pretty happy with it. Its pretty neat actually, doing the video, as while commentating on my play, it really forces me to rethink my plays and why I'm doing them. I know at times I start to get so used to doing certain plays that I'm not even consciously aware of why I'm doing them anymore. So by explaining myself, move by move, it helps me realign my strategy and also maybe will help me to find some leaks. Anyways, enjoy.

Edit - For some reason the video was cut off at the beginning, which sucks because I stacked someone early. So during the video I reference hands that I thought the video picked up, so just ignore them.




















Click the picture retard.

An epiphany

Probably being a bit over dramatic here, but in my time off, I thought a lot about random poker situations. I mostly thought a lot about bluffing, because in the passive games that I'd been playing, thats how I lost most of my money.

Now, when I bluff, I generally try to play my bluffing hands the exact same way that I play my non-bluffing hands. For example if my "standard" play is to bet the flop and turn with a set, then I also will bet the flop and turn as a bluff. For me, this made sense, in that, my opponents now can't get an easy read on me and will have some suspicion that I could sometimes be bluffing when I'm representing something, and therefore pay me off when I'm not.

However, after some thought, I realized - isn't my whole value betting strategy designed to get people to call? I'm not an overly tricky player, but thats not to say I don't try to trick my opponents (obvious). So when I have a big hand, I generally go through great lengths to disguise my hand strength, but also maximize the number of chips in the pot. And while I'm no superstar, it generally works.

So when I'm sitting there, playing my bluffs the same way that I play my strong hands, should I be suprised when they call me down? Like how many times have you been playing, pushing hard against someone only to have them call you down with 2nd pair, and you are sitting there staring at the screen yelling, "HOW COULD THEY CALL ME? I PLAY ACES THE EXACT SAME WAY WTFFFFFFFFFLOLZ!"

And I thought that way too. But I naively ignored the fact that I design my value bets TO BE CALLED. So why should I expect them to fold when I'm doing the exact same plays that I would if I wanted TO BE CALLED?

So, while this is all interesting and stuff, is it helpful? That I don't know either.

On one hand, you should bet the same way when you are bluffing as if you have the nuts because if you don't people (well, good people) will pick up on it. But if you bluff the same way you do with the nuts, expect a few calls here and there, because, well, thats what you designed it for. (is the horse dead yet?) However, if you start bluffing erratically, without really representing anything, you will get called just because, well, people suck, and won't fold if your bets don't make sense.

Another poker enigma.

Wait didn't I title this post, "An epiphany"? Wtf I didn't learn...

shhhh