Self Control

So this guy kiwiMark does this crazy ass thing in his blog where he posts a hand + analysis fairly often and I figured what the hell, I'll give it a shot. So here's my first one. I realize its extremely tl;dr but it's more for my benefit than yours.

weaktight | Hand | 99 - $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Holdem

MP is unknown (3 hands)
CO is 38/0/0 over 47 hands
BTN is 56/8/1 over 25 hands
SB is 70/4/1 over 27 hands

None of them have been 3bet yet.

Preflop- I thought about 3betting his minraise, but he's an unknown so I can't be 100% if he's continuing with a wide enough range to make it profitable, and there are 3 other players to act after I raise, none of which are likely to fold given stats. I opted to take a flop and continue if it was favorable, pitch it if it wasn't. Isn't poker easy?

Flop- Definitely one of the best flops for our hand. On the flop, all of their ranges are huge, we have an overpair vs massive ranges in a minraised pot vs an unknown opener. I considered c/r here, but I honestly wouldn't have felt comfortable getting it in vs the unknown. Nits ftw amirite. Anyways, I donk for a few reasons: 1.) I don't want the flop to check through, which is probably pretty likely to happen since its pretty dry. 2.) I'm getting called from an almost laughable amount of hands. 3.) Thin out the number of people in the pot, increasing my equity and decreasing the chance I get drawn out on on later streets. Looking at it now, I think my sizing could have been slightly larger, but its kind of negligible. I'm folding to a raise from CO, BTN or SB, butI may continue against MP if the others fold after his raise. Definitely pitching if he raises and gets a caller. Considering these 3's stats, I'm not surprised that they all called. I can probably make all their ranges fairly similar at this point:

{22-JJ, A2-AJ, K2s-KQs, K2o-KQo, Q2s+, QTo+, J2s+, J7o+, T6s+, 23s+, 45o+, 75s+}

For some reason Pokerstove is screwing up whenever I try to enter that range in 3 times vs my 99, but works fine with 2x vs my 99. Against two villains with that range, we're a 50% favorite, vs 3, we're probably somewhere in the 35-40% range. So we have a pretty large edge, but we're obviously vulnerable to being drawn out on, which is why I think my donkbet is the best line.

Turn- The turn is obviously another great card for us. It changes virtually nothing unless they hold 77 or already had my 99 beat. So I bet again going for straight value obviously. Now that the turn has essentially bricked, we can narrow their ranges down considerably, especially since its vs the player with the most 'reasonable' stats of the bunch. Assume he continues with all draws, and any pair 3x+, but folds all missed overs now. So his range looks something like:

{22-JJ, A2-AJ, K2s-KQs (clubs), K3o-K7o, Q2s+ (clubs), J2s+ (clubs), J7o, T6s+ (clubs), 23s-78s, 89s+ (clubs), 45o-78o, 75s+}

Against which we have 66% equity making it another clear bet. I hate my sizing looking at the numbers now. He has so many draws, pair + draws, etc that he's continuing with that I can bet MUCH closer to pot, getting more value, and charging more from his multitude of draws. I think somewhere ~55-65 would get a similar calling range vs this villain, and sets up an easier river shove.

River- Completely bricks off all the draws, few hands in his range improved to beat us, but a lot of the hands that were calling on the flop and turn are folding now. His range now is something like:

{22-JJ, A4, A7, K4, K7, Q4, Q7 (both Q's clubs only), J4, J7 (clubs), T7s (clubs), 34s-78s, 45o-78o, 75s, 97s}

Against which we have 60% equity. The thing is, I don't think his weaker 7's (say T7-) and 55-66 can call my pot size river shove. So if we cut those out, our equity is reduced to 53%, so I guess its still +EV. However, I think either betting larger on the turn setting up a smaller river shove, or betting a smaller amount on the river would be better. As played up to the river, I like a bet of 65-75 cents. It's an amount I think that he can't get away from with any of his one pair hands.

You may want to consider the merits of checking the river to induce a bluff or try to minimize losses. If he was on a draw or a mediocre hand to this point, he'll be very hard pressed to call. If you were value owning yourself the entire time, this would be a good chance to not go broke.

Yea, thats pretty much exactly it. All this shove is doing on the river for me is taking myself to value town a large portion of the time. It's a +EV play (given my ranges) but there is SO much more money to be had by either betting smaller or checking to induce.

I like checking to induce vs. villains I KNOW can bet with missed draws. And with the reads I have on any of the players in this hand thus far, I just didn't have that information yet, so I opt to bet out here the majority of the time.

I've been pretty fail at keeping this updated lately, but fwiw there hasn't been a whole lot new going on with me. Spoon smacked some sense into me a few nights back and has convinced me to switch my game... again. Back to HU SNGs I go! Starting with the $6.25s and moving up when appropriate obv. I don't feel like typing a shit ton about why I switched, I'm kind of high and I wanna play some COD so.. yea. lolz

Anyways, I bought a PS3, I have a job interview at Taco Bell (i know ) on Tuesday, but I might not have to take it since some chick at my current job is about to get fired and they might actually bump me up to 40 hours a week instead of the 20-24 bull shit they got going on atm. Umm... my birfday is in like 2 weeks, already making plans. I have never been to a strip club, ever. That's not what we're doing for my birthday, just thought I'd mention it lol.

Ok, thats it for naoz. COD TIME! (and maybe PB&J sammiches)

Getting a buddy of mine started out playing poker atm. Should be pretty interesting. Getting him set up at FTP with rb and all that shiz. Wish someone would have held my hand getting started like this lol.

Haven't played a whole lot of poker lately (still ) but I've been studying a decent amount, which is good. I was reading through Robb's post in the HU forum about HU sngs and some random commented with a link to another site that had some videos and articles pertaining to HU sngs and so far it seems pretty legit. I'm too lazy to get the link atm, might go dig it up later.

Thats all for now folks.

if thats tagpoker.co.uk I pointed robb to them originally lol .

Ya thats the one lol.

Been a while, not a whole lot has changed. I'm kind of on this 9 man SnG kick atm, so I'm going to be aiming towards playing those along with HU SnGs. The HU sngs will still be my main game, but I'd like to squeeze in like 20 9-mans a day, along with time for review. I'm currently 6 tabling these, but I don't think it will be long before I'll be able to 10+ table them, so 20 should be no problem to knock out.

An added bonus of playing these is Stars has the Battle of the Planets leaderboard for the different limits, which it doesnt seem like it would be THAT hard to get into the top 50 every week. Doing that is only worth like, $10 or wutever, but hey, monies is monies.

This coming Thursday (April 1st) is my 20th birthday, and I'm getting royally shitfaced pretty much Wednesday-Sunday so I'm not sure what my volume will look like for those, but I'm going to try.

I'll try to post at least a weekly update (probably on Saturdays/Sundays) about how my volume and progress is going.

no more cash?

For the time being, no. Spoon and I (proper grammar ftw!) had a conversation on IRC a few weeks back about my specific situation. I need financial stability in my life, and poker is a means to do that, and sngs (HU specifically) are one of the easiest ways to grow a BR quickly atm. Once things irl are a little more straightened out and my roll is sitting nice, I'll make the transition back, but its probably going to be until mid-late summer at the soonest.

Do whatever you think is best but I strongly disagree that anything tournament based STT or MTT is the best way to build a roll. Cash games are king. And nothing about HU is easy either.

I obviously respect your opinion Jason, and agree that cash games were the way forward when I started out, but I just feel like my mindset is different now. I'm not saying HU cash is easy, but $5.50 or $6.25 HU sngs are pretty lollerific. I have yet to play anyone that is even close to semi competent. The biggest thing holding me back in those are my tilt issues.

I agree that anything above 18 man SnGs is going to be fairly hard to grow the BR (for me at least) since I do pretty poorly in MTTs. However, HU, 6m, 9man, and 18man sngs are all fairly easy. Not LOLOMGPRINTINGMONIES, but certainly beatable for a decent hourly/ROI. It's just a completely different style of playing that most cash guys aren't used to (if they don't have any experience).

It's basically I'm just kind of playing what I feel like atm. Trying to find my niche in the poker world and right now NLHE cash just doesn't feel like the right fit.

Small stakes cash is nothing but a waste of time. SitnGo's, because you can't lose more than what you bought in for, protect you from your worst poker enemy. But even so, 20% rake SNGs are a waste of time too if it's a roll you are trying to build.

And now to the question: who is your worst poker enemy, young grasshoppers?

Originally Posted by Jack Sawyer

Small stakes cash is nothing but a waste of time. SitnGo's, because you can't lose more than what you bought in for, protect you from your worst poker enemy. But even so, 20% rake SNGs are a waste of time too if it's a roll you are trying to build.

And now to the question: who is your worst poker enemy, young grasshoppers?

So, Mr. Sawyer, if we can't answer the question (who is your worst poker enemy) for the grasshopper, beacause we are merely crickets, is there a better or worse game between the two, sit-n-goes or cash? I'm asking because I can't f'in get beyond 5NL and it's pissing me off. It seems to be a matter of 1 or 2 big hands per/1k that can destroy the BR.

Sorry Dr. for imposing.

It's ok, this blog isn't just for me, anytime anyone feels like posting in here, be my guest.

As for Jack's question, my worst poker enemy is my tilt/emotional control. Like you said, sngs only have a set BI so you cant go tilting off your roll every hand you play, and its easier (in my opinion) to walk away once tilted after the tournaments are done than it is for cash. Since at a cash table I can be like, "Oh, I'll just see it til the next bb" and then proceed to spew off half my stack and then think fuck it, I'm staying til I get back to even. Which turns into a vicious cycle and a shit ton of BI's lost.

I agree 20% rake is a killer, which is why I'm only screwing around with the $1.20s until I feel comfortable playing sngs. After that I'll move up to the 3.40s for a short stint and then up to the 5.50s where the rake doesn't totally trash my winrate.

PlayToWin, if you want to learn some stuff about sngs, hit me up on aim or skype, I can ship you a couple of decent videos that I've found since I've started playing them. dranger7070 on both.

If you havent already, I would suggest reading "The Poker Mindset". I thought it was a really good book for putting poker and your emotions in perspective.

@dr. anger: "my tilt/emotional control" is a part of the answer. The complete answer is "me". "I am my own worst enemy at the poker table.", and getting "me" dominated and controlled is all "I" should be aiming to do. This counts for everybody obv.

@playTowIn, I wrote a very long response, but then I deleted it since here is the gist of it:

Dwan started began playing poker in 2004 at the age of seventeen. Tom started his online poker endeavor with only a $50.00 bankroll deposit and started with $5 sit-and-gos. As he built his bankroll from winning SNGs, he progressed on to low stake cash games and rapidly graduated to the higher stake levels he plays today. By 2008, Tom Dwan's bankroll had easily exceeded seven figures.

I totally disagree with his BRM, and just wonder how the years past were. 150BI-200BI should be enough. IMO, grind 'em until you got $10K, then decide from there. SNGs and MTTs will make you a lot of money if you have the time to invest in them.

I will leave you with a little part of the response i wrote though:

I don't trust cash. I know for a fact that if I get 1-outered and said person leaves the table, I start steaming like a teapot. If I get 1-outered in a SNG, I just load another one and keep trucking. This is why I pretty much only play cash live, and with reputable people only.



And another thing: be very wary of vids and coaches or whatnot. Nothing would be better for me right now than someone paying me a sum at or near my hourly for me to just tell them basic things that they could have found out on their own. That is variance-free money. Hell, with 10 "students" I could stop grinding altogether!
If I am truly crushing any given stake and have a secret sauce or recipe or whatnot, why would I ever make a vid? I'd be too busy trying to reach ironman, supernova, supernova elite, $100K months or my plane to Puerto Plata and its beaches (tickets and accommodation bought with the concierge service of course)... Poker is a game that by nature attracts scumbags: be very wary of these types.

Originally Posted by Jack Sawyer

@playTowIn, I wrote a very long response

Thank you for the response. I think it would be a nice to get away from cash and see how it goes. I do get tired of AA<JJ AI PF for 200bb's, etc.

@Dr. Anger, I'll be in touch.

Quick update for the luhlz. 28 game sample at the $1.20s at Stars has resulted in 44% ROI and $15 in profit lol. Obviously running good, but I wouldn't be surprised if 25% ROI was sustainable here, the players are just god awful (as would be expected), too bad the rake blows pretty hard for new players. :/ I'll be moving up to the $3.40s by then end of the week if things keep going well.

Ya, I agree you should play whatever you feel is best for whatever reason. I just wanted to interject my opinion about cash games versus tournaments. And, not to beat a dead horse, but I recently came across this podcast interview with SNG specialist Bones and @ 13:25, he even admits that cash games are a much better way to "build a roll".

man just put in the hours ffs. the results will come if u put in hours.

Originally Posted by Jason

And, not to beat a dead horse, but I recently came across this podcast interview with SNG specialist Bones and @ 13:25, he even admits that cash games are a much better way to "build a roll".

Thanks for the link Jason. I might play some SNG's for a little variety, but overall I need to study more and play more.

Originally Posted by Jason

Ya, I agree you should play whatever you feel is best for whatever reason. I just wanted to interject my opinion about cash games versus tournaments. And, not to beat a dead horse, but I recently came across this podcast interview with SNG specialist Bones and @ 13:25, he even admits that cash games are a much better way to "build a roll".

Who might Bones be? I mean, Tom Dwan seems to disagree with him. Boku87, you know the guy who made a prop bet on getting from $5 to $100,000 in under a year, disagrees too.

But Bbickes has a point. Whichever you choose, just put in the hours.

Happy Birfday to me.

Happy barfday to you tooo.

DR. check out the roseeker/nostalgica hu sng videos at pokertrikz.com..... ignore the fact that hes's a lying cheating scamming multiaccounting chip dumping sort of a guy though.

on a more serious note .....are you doing the SNG leaderboards at stars, can be quite handy for helping build the roll if you getthe number of SNG's in and place well enough to earn the bonuses.
BRB - Free Winning Texas Holdem Poker Strategy Videos some more free vids which go into the leaderboard stuff and playing SNG's . FR vids were what i used when i swapped to FR for a period in the autumn. Forum there is where I now keep my blog.

Thanks, Keith. Appreciate the links, I'll def check those out. Yea, I'm definitely going for the leaderboard at stars every week, I get in plenty of volume for both tables.

I'm tilting right now... hard. Just registered and played 18 $1.20 sngs and bubbled 11 times I think? Didn't place 1st once, got 3rd a couple times, and 2nd twice.

I'm not posting this to whine. Just trying to get it off my chest a bit, instead of spewing in IRC for 30 minutes about how rogged poker is and such. (I did enough of that already imo). It feels good to tilt sometimes, like really good. It feels like its been a week or so since I've really been in a pissed off, red faced, swearing every 2 seconds mood. Sometimes you just gotta get pissed off and let it out.

I'm kind of glad I'm tilting like a madman right now, since its just the $1.20s, I'm pissed, but I'm not really losing that much at all. I only ended up losing like 8-10 BIs tonight, so its not like omfg horrific results, but the beats were just getting under my skin. It might sound weird, but I hope I have a few days like this strung together, or maybe a session like this followed by a good session or two, followed by another trainwreck, rinse, repeat until I am no longer tilting every time things don't go my way.

Self Control ftw.

Oh yea, I didn't play all 18 at once, I 10 tabled for one session (first time 10 tabling sngs) and then 8 tabled the 2nd. I don't feel my play was adversely effected by the extra 2-4 tables (I've only 6 tabled in the past) and I actually feel it helped my game out since I was forced to be nitty or be put into too many awkward spots post that required reads on honestly didn't have.

So I think I'll keep it at 8-10 sngs for now.

[21:03] <@spoonitnow> if there's ever a time where you have two choices
[21:03] <@spoonitnow> and you pick the wrong one
[21:03] <@spoonitnow> and you pick the wrong one when you know what the right one is
[21:03] <@spoonitnow> and you pick the wrong one when you know what the right one is just because you don't feel like doing it
[21:04] <@spoonitnow> then if you just realize "hey, i'm wrong"
[21:04] <@spoonitnow> like really take it in for a moment and compare the two choices
[21:04] <@spoonitnow> (say a choice between getting fucked up and partying, or between staying home and studying)
[21:05] <dranger> just kind of look at the pro/cons of each?
[21:05] <@spoonitnow> once you realize it and bring it to your attention in your mind, that's the first step
[21:05] <dranger> ah
[21:05] <@spoonitnow> once you realize you're wrong
[21:05] <@spoonitnow> you'll immediately feel a pull to what you believe is right
[21:05] <@spoonitnow> and you feed that pull all you can
[21:05] <@spoonitnow> and that's how you change your habits
[21:06] <@spoonitnow> and get motivated to do things you wouldn't do before

Full Tilt tilts the fucking shit out of me. For the Take 2, you need to earn 5 points a day for 9 days. I did my 5 points yesterday, had the FTP odometer and iron man thing tell me for sure that I had 5 points on both so I quit. Logged in about 15 minutes ago to do the second day, the first day only registered 1/2 the points. FML It's bullshit since the Ironman Points thing said 5 too, so even if Happy Hour was going on it wouldnt matter since the Iron Man points still only go off a 1 point for $1 in rake and $1 = 1 FTP and all that shit was at 5 points for the day. FUCK FTP.

So yea, now I'm only getting $5 instead of $25. Gay.

lol FTP

get on stars u nub

why didn't you check on the take2 promo page ?.

I did, but it usually takes a while to update after your session, and I hadn't slept yet so I just hurried up and did them, made sure I had 5 points for Iron man and FTPs then closed it and passed out til 6 or 7pm. Then I didn't really think about it cuz I was with some friends and then it was too late. -.-

I'll probably end up just passing on it now. $5 isn't really worth putting off another week for lol.

Run good when moving up is fun imo.

I'm still busto as shit

Originally Posted by Keith_MM

why didn't you check on the take2 promo page ?.

This isn't much of a guarantee either, it seems. Mine showed me the big blue tick when I had two points, even though you need five. Seems they have some bugs to iron out.

Oh .....so thats what hem tourney section look like .....i stay in the cash side lol........ oh and update HEM ....its 1.10.04 now ....... . Kiwi.....easy enough to look at the page and think hmmmm 2.....maybe not there yet ....another few minutes playing 3 tables of rush 5nl

^ Except it doesn't say anywhere on the promotions page that you need 5 points, you have to read the specific rules for that. So it's not unreasonable to think, "Well I'll play until FTP tells me I've played enough."

explain your logic for playing high

Playing $3.40 sngs with a $100 on Stars and another $100 on FTP isn't exactly playing high, it's well within my BR. I've just been putting it off since I wanted ~30 BIs at Stars so I'd feel a little more comfortable in case I ran/played bad initially.

I think m2m's referring to the section circled in yellow on your graph when he says "high".

Ah touche lol. Didn't even think about that. Um... no explanation obviously. Smoked a little too much then decided I'd play. *shrug* Clearly its not going to help anything if I do it with any regularity, but that isn't something I plan on doing.

Another week in the books. Cleared the Take 2 promo for the luhlz, will be moving roll to stars tonight once BooG gets on IRC. I tried 20 tabling 1.20s just to see how hectic it gets around the bubble/ITM. It gets kind of crazy, figuring out stack sizes compared to blinds with that many tables and deciding whether to push or fold gets pretty hard but I'm confident I'll be able to manage it once I work my way up. Overall I ended down 4 BIs, which imo isn't terrible for my first try out. I lost a lot of flips and hands where I got it in way ahead (AK < AQ, KK < A9, AQ , Q8, etc) so I'm pretty happy with how it went regardless of some IRC chat.

I'll be moving up to the 3.40s and 6-8 tabling those to start. Once I feel comfortable with that I'll add another table and so on until I'm able to 16-20 effectively. Once that happens I hope my BR will be large enough to move up to the $6.50s (I'm looking for 40-50+ BIs and at least 16 tables before moving up). After that, the sky's the limit.

Irl, I moved back home for about a month or so. This will help paying off my credit card ($500ish I owe on that) and some rent I still owe my old apartment, and my car. The plan is to have my credit card completely paid off before I move into my new place which shouldn't be an issue, then having my car paid off by the end of the summer. I owe ~$1100 on that so that should be pretty easy as well.

Still looking for a new job, I've put my app out to quite a few places around town and my buddy is picking me up an application at a couple of places while he's out since he's job hunting too.

Other then that, same old, same old.

doc anger, focus on playing them continuously rather than in sets. and indeed, the sky is the limit!

Set yourself a number of how many SnG's you want to play in a week or month (to say hit goldstar or something) and then break it down by day and try to stay on task for that. Maybe make a small prop bet about your volume vs. some1 elses volume to keep yourself motivated. Otherwise, it seems as if your volume is fairly low for what you are trying to accomplish.

I tried playing the 3.40s continuously today. I only did 4 at a time since I wasn't sure how confusing it would get with some ITM, some on the bubble and some starting out. Turned out pretty well. I ran really hot to start and cashed in like 6 out of 8 tournaments, mostly 1sts and 2nds.

I'll probably keep doing 4 continuous for a little while, adding an extra table when I'm feeling good or whatever. Hopefully doing this will help me up my pretty abysmal volume. Thanks for the advice Jack.

And yea cbat, I'd probably be down to do a prop sometime in June for a prop since thatll be the next time I have a consistent internet connection. My goal for this year isn't 200k VPP anymore lol. I dont think theres enough time unless I run/play a lot better than I'm expecting and manage to hit the $16s before summer's out. If that happens, who knows? At the very least I want to hit 100k so I can start out as a Nova next year.

VPPs til SN- 99,242 (lol)
Days left: 260
VPPs/day- 381.7

I expect to be behind pace until mid-late summer since my volume is going to be pretty meh and at the 3.40s/6.50s. Once I'm able to 12 table continuous and I'm at the 11s my VPP/day should more than make up for what I'm missing on right now.

I'll definitely be down for a prop in June since I will be graduated by then.

Happy (belated) 420 FTR! Had a pretty good day. Smoked half an ounce of pot with some really good buddies had chinese buffet for lunch and taco bell for dinner. Tons of FIFA and NBA Jam (sega) was played along with stoner vids. Was a pretty good day all around.

On the poker front. I'm changing (once again ) to HU SNGs. I had forgotten that I ordered Moshman's book on HU SNGs with my FPPs before moving to FTP a while back and it just showed up in the mail like 4 days ago. I'm a little more than halfway through it and thought I was HU SNG poker god so I fired up some 6.25 turbos on stars and proceeded to wtfpwn them. My ROI is like 64% over 14 (lolsample size) games. I'm up like $50ish so its fun to run hawt.

I really think I'm playing well though except for this last match I played where I was playing a 20% ROI over a 100 game sample player that was pretty much pwning me in every spot post flop. Once it got to push/fold I ran good and beat him but I didn't feel good about it and he insta accepted a rematch which I politely declined. I'll be digging through the HHs and see exactly HOW he was picking me apart so badly and post any hands I think are worthy.

Anyways, thats it for now. Might have a new ladyfriend (pics to come later if it turns into anything) irl which is nice since I haven't had a steady gf in over a year thanks to being across the country for over 6 months last year lol. Adios!

I have a new weight loss blog if you guys wanna follow it.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...ml#post1935642

Basically its because I've been slowly but surely gaining weight since I got out of the Marines and I want to cut it down to where i was.