OP: Unfinished Business

Originally Posted by daven

probably worth describing your play with speculative hands - just briefly. Break them into type and how you tend to play them. as an example that i've only recently come to recognise - I over-value suited connectors, i call them multi-way too often and i open them too often. Post your thoughts here or in the bc, you'll gain a bunch from simply spending ten minutes scribbling your ideas down.

Prior to this month, my stats were around 16/10.

I had been opening any suited A from all positions and suited K's from the Button and sometimes the CO. I would generally call w/any suited A for 3bb and sometimes 4bb's. It's such a powerful hand if it hits a flop, that I hate to fold them and it's even worse, psychologically, to fold them and see the flush complete w/o me in the hand. Argggg. I would also open with 78s, 89s from the Button, rarely hitting flops. I rarely played suited gappers.

PP's: I would fold 22-44 from early position, fold/limp/call from MP-LP (depending on my mood, I guess). I would open with 55+ from MP to LP, 3bet/4bet shove w/KK+, call 3bets with JJ+, depending on villian and size of 3bet. I'll generally call w/any pair versus a nit opening in early position.

I would open AJs, but not AJo from UTG. I had generally stopped 3betting with AK, but would call 3bets, depending on villian.

This month I'm running around 17/6.

I began limp/folding or limp/calling PF with all the suited A's and PP's because I was losing money by flopping badly and if cbet bluffing, would get called and lose more. This is all very table dependent. I can't limp against a bunch of nits, but against other limpers, it seems ok. Against good TAGG's, I feel like I have to play TAGG also.

Originally Posted by daven

it almost sickens me to mention it, but look at this.

these guys are 12-9 and 13-10 respectively. Their style will crush microstakes, but you have to be patient. An oft suggested, but rarely followed, approach to micro full-ring is to start out uber-nit, and very slowly add hands to your pre-flop ranges.

I suppose your advising me to tighten up more and play TAGG. I know there's a lot more to winning than stats. By that I mean, there are skills involved. I mean, do those stats even apply at 5NL (probably moreso at 10NL)? I think a player with those stats wouldn't get much action at 5NL. But, I could try it and hopefully I'll try it at 10NL soon.

Dude, you'll get action at 100nl with those stats. At 5nl, fucking no one is paying attention, so yes, you'll get action.

Doctor, I hear ya. Sometimes it seems like they are paying attention when I have AA UTG, bet 4x and the whole table folds. They probably just don't have a hand to call with.

I lost a little over a BI in the last session. Here are the two biggest losers.

Villian was 11/11, but only over 9 hands. I put him on a big pair. The flop c/r was for value, I thought. The all low card flop probably didn't help him and there are still plenty of pairs that I beat. I thought it was reasonable to stack-off here. Still sucked.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 ($2.22)
CO ($5)
Button ($5)
Hero (SB) ($7.98)
BB ($6.78)
UTG ($5.20)
UTG+1 ($15.15)
MP1 ($1.58)
MP2 ($1.75)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
5 folds, CO bets $0.15, Button raises to $0.55, Hero calls $0.53, 1 fold, CO calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.70) 6, 7, 9 (3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks, Button bets $0.85, Hero raises to $2.10, 1 fold, Button raises to $4.45 (All-In), Hero calls $2.35

Turn: ($10.60) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($10.60) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $10.60 | Rake: $0.50

Results below:
Button had A, A (two pair, Aces and sixes).
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and sixes).
Outcome: Button won $10.10

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hand 2:
Villian is a solid player. 8/3 with 0% 3bet over 230 hands.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 ($3.95)
MP2 ($9.29)
CO ($5.15)
Button ($5)
Hero (SB) ($7.38)
BB ($7.30)
UTG ($11.66)
UTG+1 ($3.35)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, Q
3 folds, MP2 calls $0.05, CO calls $0.05, 1 fold, Hero bets $0.25, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.20, CO calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.80) 3, 9, 6 (3 players)
Hero bets $0.60, 1 fold, CO calls $0.60

Turn: ($2) 10 (2 players)
Hero bets $1, CO raises to $3.46, Hero folds

Total pot: $4

1st hand is a cooler obviously.

2nd hand is just weird. If he has a set IP, i expect him to call, call then jam the river or bet the river if u check. Really strange line by him, and I'd probably end up calling and be showed 33 but w/e. Fold is obviously correct line to take.

16-10, you were winning, right? this is in the optimal full ring micro range imo.

suited aces - i'd drop them from ep except for AJs+. Re calling them, i'd only call them multi-way ip vs small opens and when pfr had 90bb minimum, i'd iso with them, i'd lfdo steal with them. Sometimes they will be good to 3b from the button vs mp/lp opens - but be careful, and folding > 3betting > calling in these spots. Regarding psychological impact of folding and then seeing flush board - if you can't deal with this then poker isn't your game. Once a hand is mucked you should try and forget the cards you held, it's no longer important. Kinda like posting blinds, once the blind is posted it's no longer your money - so don't be attached to it

Suited Kings - dumping except for steals, sounds fine

opening scs from button and cutoff sounds good to me. You should do some quick poker stoving of suited-1-gappers and see that they perform about as well as scs, with the added advantage that they pay off better when you hit straights.

pocket pairs. folding 22-44 from ep is fine. Limping them from lp is fine too, but steal with them if folded to obviously. Also, look at pfr stack size before set mining. KK+ play sounds optimal at 5nl. Calling 3-bets could well be a leak. How about you never call 3-bets out of position for a while - except for min 3-bets where stack/pot sizes give you set mining odds.

you can limp-fold suited aces, but limp-calling them is spew.

you asked a question re stats. Obviously both these players are solid post-flop, but the opposition they are up against is also more solid than at 5nl... Regarding not getting much action, how many of the players you are against are running a HUD, even then, how many are adjusting correctly?

one more comment. Position. I suspect you are playing too wide from ep, and too tight from lp. You are also likely playing too wide from the blinds and not stealing liberally enough from the cutoff. Just a feeling...

ok, onto the hands:
KK - looks fine. I prefer cold-4betting out of position here, but depends a bunch on cutoff's tendencies. You gotta stack off on this flop. Coolers happen, doesn't mean you have to enjoy it though.

QQ - a note, villain isn't 'solid', he's uber-nit. Probably a decent winner at the stakes. Look him up on ptr, re the question "can ubernits get action at micros?". Pre-flop is good, flop is good, turn i think bet-fold $1.40 is better cos you don't want to induce a raise from worse. nh.

Man, what a weekend. Saturday, a friend and I had dinner at the Atlanta Fish Market. F'in aewsome food. I had flounder, stuffed with shrimp, scallops, and mushrooms. After, we went to the Cheetah III club. We were there for about 6-7 hours. Tons of hot, naked womenz. Got a free tour of the vip and a free squeeze of my unit (bare, ftw). By the end, I was trashed. Puked on the way home, twice. My dumbass friend ran the car out of gas. I hardly noticed. Got home safe, with the credit card, and the cell phone. Good times....

Was too hungover to play poker Sunday. Thought it would be -ev. Kinda pissed that I got no hands in over the weekend, but it was a good trade-off.

Daven, thanks a ton for the advice. I'll read it a few times to makes sure it sinks in. I think I'm over the limping too much. There's really no point to it. April was my first month at FR. I did win 6 BI's after recovering from losing 6 BI's to coolers early in the month. Then May, so far has been running so hawt, except for the last two sessions, that it's not a good indication of how I'm playing.

Anyway, I'll go back to 16/10 style and steal more. It's still hard to loosen up a lot in late position, but maybe I'll start playing the suited gappers, ftw.

It's really not hard at all. There's so many hands that are playable OTB and in the CO that aren't playable OOP. You just need to get comfortable playing with mediocre hands postflop.

Originally Posted by dranger7070

It's really not hard at all. There's so many hands that are playable OTB and in the CO that aren't playable OOP. You just need to get comfortable playing with mediocre hands postflop.

What I meant was that it might be harder to loosen up more than I already am, but I'll try. I'm sure it's possible, but mediocre hands don't play well post-flop. This is a small sample from my laptop database, but in 4k hands, I'm 15/6 from EP and 23/11 from the Button, using a limp-too-much style. HEM doesn't break position stats down anymore for the FR play. Like Daven said, it's probably too loose early and too tight late.

Roflz 23/11 seems almost nitty to me OTB. But yea, you really need to tighten up your EP stats at the very least. like running 14/11 in EP >>>>>>>>>>>> 15/6.

Atm I'm running 15.9/15.7 in EP and 39/25 OTB. This is 6m, but I think you see the point. I heard from somewhere a while back, if your BTN range is at least double your EP range, you're probably doing it right.

I just spent another night at the Cheetah Club. I'm trying to hire one of the girls as a model. Chances are around 15% of that happening, but it would be fairly epic if things worked out, imo. No puking this time, ftw.

Here are some interesting hands from a recent session.

EDIT:
These hands were posted in the BC, also. Click the link if you want to see the responses.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerforum/beginners-circle/5nl-fr-hands-review-180491.html#post1946933

------------------------------------------------------------------
Hand 1:
No reads. Only had 10 hands w/Villian.

On the flop, I check/call his c-bet to keep worse hands in. On the Turn, he bets pot, I C/C again for pot control and to keep worse hands in. My TPTK could easily be beat, but I don't have enough history with the guy to make me want to fold this. He could still have worse Q's, JJ, TT, or even AK. He could also be on a flush draw, but I don't think he bets so strongly with a draw. He puts up another strong bet on the River and I kinda hate to call. On the other hand, I realize that I've played the hand very passively. He's probably putting me on a flush draw or an underpair and I could still have the best hand. Hero?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($5.46)
UTG ($2.20)
UTG+1 ($3.52)
MP1 ($7.72)
MP2 ($6.10)
MP3 ($4.52)
CO ($7.59)
Button ($5)
Hero (SB) ($6.35)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, Q
5 folds, CO bets $0.15, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.13, 1 fold
Flop: ($0.35) 5, Q, 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.30
Turn: ($0.95) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.90, Hero calls $0.90
River: ($2.75) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2, Hero ??

Edit: I called the River. Villian turned over JT of hearts for the OESD.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hand 2: FPS or decent play?
Villian is 10/3 over 720 hands. He has a 1.6% 3bet. I don't know what notes he might have on me, but at this table, I had been playing face-up poker. I'd been folding a lot and only showing down good hands.

I open with my standard raise from the Hijack. I thought I had enough equity to call his 3-bet and see a flop. The flop was pretty good, but I didn't love it. I could easily cbet with the nut flush draw. With the low card flop, I felt like he would call any bet with an overpair so I decided to check, hoping he would check behind.

When he bet 2/3 pot, I thought it was a little weak. I made a snap decision to put him all in because 1) I knew the c/r would look really strong. 2) I felt like I had good fold equity based on my table image and his nitty stats. 3) I'm not going to be in terrible shape if he calls. 4) He's kind of short stacked, so it wouldn't be a disaster if I lost the hand.

I didn't like a call here that would maybe give me a tough decision if I blanked the Turn. And I really felt like I could get him to fold. This is a very non-standard play for me, but I went for it.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
CO ($5.25)
Button ($10)
SB ($5.02)
BB ($2.82)
UTG ($4.72)
UTG+1 ($10.10)
MP1 ($4.40)
Hero (MP2) ($9.89)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Q, A
3 folds, Hero bets $0.20, CO raises to $0.70, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.50
Flop: ($1.47) 9, 7, 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.95, Hero raises to $6.65, 1 fold
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hand 3 & 4: Removed since they were not very interesting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Hand 5:
Villian is 52/39/39 (3bet) over 70 hands

This is a little more interesting. Typically, I wouldn't call a 3bet with TT, but I noticed Villians 3bet stat of 39% over 70 hands. We hadn't played that many hands yet, but his 3bet% was about 30% at the time of this hand. I hadn't seen any showdown's though, so I felt like he was probably stealing a lot of pots with 3bets.

I donked the flop to try to take the hand right there. I think I had to fold as played.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG+1 ($3.23)
MP1 ($9.56)
MP2 ($5.10)
CO ($7.50)
Button ($6)
SB ($3.90)
BB ($8.30)
Hero (UTG) ($10.17)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 10, 10
Hero bets $0.20, UTG+1 calls $0.20, 2 folds, CO raises to $0.90, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.70, 1 fold
Flop: ($2.07) 7, 3, 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.25, CO raises to $5, Hero folds
Total pot: $4.57 | Rake: $0.20

May Recap:
I made some monies in May, finally. The month started with a big heater. When I needed a card, I seemed to get it. That's the first heater I've experienced and it was kinda strange. It was hard to tell how well I was playing. Maybe not that well, but I still won. I broke even for the last 2/3 of the month.

13K hands @ 12.4 bb/100 hands

Monies: $81.55
Bonus: 50% of the way to my 2nd $10 VIP Stellar Reward

May Graph:
Imageshack - may2010.jpg

Even though I completed my "win 30 BI's at 5NL" goal back in mid-May, I had a small downswing right after. Because of that, I decided to stay at 5NL to start June. Since then, I recovered and re-made the 30 BI's (not counting the $10 VIP Reward).

So, I moved up to 10NL FR. Daven suggested a 6 BI stop-loss, so I'll stick to that.

June Recap - Long version (Cliff Notes below)

I didn't know if I should play the 20-50 BB tables or the 40-100 BB tables. I decided to try the short tables but I hated 'em. I only played a short while so my first impression could be way off. I was very uncomfortable trying to figure out ranges. I got several small to mid PP's and got 3-bet off of all of them. It was pretty crazy aggro. I had no idea what villian's 3bet/shoving range were.

So, I went back to the more standard 40-100 BB tables and felt much better. I immediately (3rd session) had a 4 BI downswing due to villian's calling my preflop 3bet's and flopping sets -vs- my KK/AA hands. I saw it happen to other players a few times as well. That was a weird night at the tables. I almost hit my 10NL stop-loss, but turned it around.

Now, I feel comfortable at 10NL. The 10NL table are much tighter than those at 5NL. It's rare to find tables with >20% players/flop. But, there are a still a lot of fish, even if their stats look better than the 5NL fish stats. That being said, I have to take the blame for a pitiful month. I tilted/spewed around 7-10 BI's. So, I'm lucky that my donk play didn't hurt the BR too much. I should be ok if I can keep my shit together and play more solid poker.

Major leak found #1: I can get too impatient and tilt. This seems to happen after several winning sessions in a row. Then I run bad for an hour or more, being card-dead, getting bad beats and coolers. The thing is, I don't feel like I'm upset but it eventually makes me play bad. I'll start calling too much, maybe make a couple of bad bluffs, get down 2-3 BI's, then continue to spew. My worst night of spew was 4 BI's.

Major leak found #2: Even w/o tilt, I can be a donkeytard. It's actually embarrassing. Usually, I play pretty well, so I have to get my mind right.

Some stats:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Goals:
[ ] Do not tilt. Close down the tables if I need to.
[ ] Bet more often/call less
[ ] Steal more/Cbet more
[ ] Experirment w/ 3betting a little more often.
[ ] Fold to 3bets more

------------------------------------

Played 15,480 hands
Monies: $20
Bonus: $10 (2nd VIP Stellar Reward)
Total: $30
BR = $353

Cliff's
I moved up to 10NL early in the month and now feel pretty comfortable there. Because of tilt, the month was meh. I need to stop being a donkeytard, imo.

Holy titty fuck, stop calling 3bets so fucking much. I played 10nl FR for 10k hands last month and only called 3bets like 20% of the time. Ran like baby jesus so that helps, but god damn. Our VPIP is the same, my PFR is almost double yours though, that might have something to do with it. I also stole like 48%. GOGO aggression!

10nl is just like 2nl/5nl, vbet good hands, fold to aggression postflop. Easy game.

Just a quick update. I'm down around 3.5 BI's for the month so far. Mostly due to coolers with some good old-fasioned CS spew thrown in, too.

I played on a couple of tables with Chiren80 today. I thought he must be a Pokerstars Pro since he had a red spade symbol on his table avatar. I Googled him and he's pretty famous. He set the record for the most hands played in a month. I didn't confirm the number, but it's over 1,000,000. Pokerstars made him an "online Pro" as a reward. He seemed to play very tight, ABC poker. I wonder why he was playing 10NL.

I also saw M2M on a couple of tables recently. I stacked him....not. Maybe he was making a video.

yeah that chiren dude was running 6/2 over the 200 hands i played with him. what a nit

July Recap:
July wasn't a very fun month. I spent the entire month below the break-even line. I was within $5 of my 6 BI stop-loss twice and one other time, as I look at my graph now, I went over my stop loss to -6.6 BI's. Good thing I wasn't paying attention, lol. I also got within 1 BI of break-even twice during the month, but just couldn't sustain the wins.

I did have a couple of spewy losses but played with more patience than last month. I also sucked out on villian 3 or 4 times, ftw. Overall, I felt like I ran like crap so I feel ok about not losing more.

On the positive side, I hit Silver Star and will have that throughout August.

Played 17,870 hands (a new high)
Monies: (- $27)
Bonus: $10 (3rd VIP Stellar Reward, 92% complete for next reward)
Bonus: $6 (purchased with 375 fpp's)
Total: (- $11)
BR = $353 (Same as at the end of June. I'm not sure where the error is.)

I've gotten away from studying again, so I plan to read and watch more videos.

Join IRC

???

Profit

August Recap:

*** I want to be able to find this post later.

I'm pretty happy with the month. It's my first positive month since moving up to 10NL in June. I've obviously still got work to do in becoming more disciplined. I tilted hard one night after about 4 hours of run-bad (over 2 sessions) and it probably cost me an extra 3 BI's. After that night, I made sure I had a good mindset before I played. So, I played pretty good until the last couple of sessions of the month when I think I just lost focus by getting results oriented.

I did improve one aspect of my poker discipline. I didn't play at all if I had been drinking. I plan to continue that plan and keep trying to improve my tilt control. It would be great to be able to say that I didn't tilt for the whole month.

I started using dranger's table selection technique and I think it works pretty good. I'll still be Silver Star throughout September, which I didn't expect and I'm working on the first $50 VIP Stellar Reward.

****
I also hit a milestone in my poker career. I've finally recovered the early losses and the money I spent on poker books, Grinder School, and Hold'em Manager.
So, any part of my BR > $390 = profit.

Played 4-5 tables of 10NL FR for 17,256 hands @ 2.81 BB/100 hands

Monies: $97
Bonus: $20 (2 bonuses in August. Woohoo)
Total: $117

BR = $470

nice work
welcome to the world of being a net profitable poker player! also, I think you did better than me in August

Let my know if you got my message....
I replied today.

September Recap:
I had another decent month with a slightly better winrate. I'd love to have a month without a big downswing. I knew I had lost a lot and gotten close to the break-even line after a series of coolers, but I didn't know I had actually dipped below it at one point. I usually keep track of my session wins/losses, but I rarely look at the monthly total or my bankroll during the month. After the downswing, I knew it would be tough to have a great month. Actually, if I count the bonuses, this was my best month so far. I also did much better at controlling tilt so I think I'm almost where I need to be (tiltless).

As far as moving up to 25NL, I'm trying to decide whether or not to count the bonus money. I had planned to wait until I had earned the roll at the tables. Then I started thinking that these PokerStars bonuses are the same as rakeback on other sites and you guys count rakeback as part of your roll, right? Whatev, I'll have to play at least another month before I'm rolled, so I have more time to decide.

Also, over the last couple of months, I've increased my "Fold to 3bet" from 45% to 65%. I'm not sure what optimal would be.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Played 10NL FR for 15,275 hands @ 3.03 BB/100 hands (3.03 ptbb/100 hands)
Monies: $92
Bonus: $50 (Stellar Reward) I don't think I'll get any more of these unless I move up to 25NL
Bonus: $50 (purchased with fpp's)
Total: $192

BR = $662

I was talking to a conpiracy theorist nut-job friend of mine yesterday. He bet me $20 that I wouldn't be able to withdraw any of my money from any online poker site. He said he knew a guy that told him that online poker was a huge scam. Since I had been thinking of putting money on another site anyway, I withdrew $150 from PokerStars (bonus money). So, ship the $20 when my check gets here in about 2 weeks or so.

BR = $488 (PokerStars)
$150 (New site)

In other poker news, I played 2 hours on Stars today for a .01 cent win. It's my first winning session of the month (down 2.5 BI's). What a nitfest the fullring tables are. The main problem is that I've been card dead all month. Throw in a couple of coolers and .... I spent most of my time color-coding all the villians in red. I'll just grind it out and wait for better cards.

Well damn. I just found this 2+2 thread about bad PokerStars checks. I may lose the $20 after all.

** Official ** PokerStars Check Problems Thread - Internet Poker - Online Poker Forum

UPDATE: I received the PokerStars check and deposited it without any trouble. Ship the $20! I decided to just spend it, so no BR bump.

I haven't played much this month due to IRL issues. If I don't post an October recap, rest assured that I am not dead. I'll get back to this Op when I can. See Jason, that wasn't so hard.

It's been almost four months since my last update. It's good to be back. I had IRL stuff to deal with but I've put that behind me (no jail time, lol) and I'm looking forward to a good year in 2011!

I only played 22K hands in the last 4 months. I played 10 NL as usual and, eventhough I didn't play much, it was fun and I was playing pretty well. I was looking forward to playing more in January and starting the new year strong, but around the end of December the doomswitch got flipped. I lost lots of stacks as a 80% or better favorite after getting all-in on the Turn. I also had QQ< KK, KK< AA, etc. It was a major downswing (16 BI's) and it affected my play a little. After I made some bad calls for 2 or 3 stacks, I decided I had to change something so I dropped to 5 NL.
Here's the awesome graph:



As soon as I dropped down, my hands began to hold up and the runbad stopped. I played 5800 hands of 5NL for +12 buyins (10.3 ptbb/100 hands). So after four months, I'm only down 2 10NL buyins. I suppose the doomswitch has been flipped off so I'm going to move back to 10NL and see how it goes.

My 2011 goal is to become comfortable and playing well at 25NL. Anything beyond that would be great, obv. I still won't have a lot of time to play this month, but hopefully that will change for the rest of the year.

I still have a healthy 10NL BR of $640.

I played 3-4 tables in my first session back at 10NL. I found myself in a reg war on one table. I had two solid regs to my left. I should have found a better table, but it was a fun challenge. They were 3betting my button quite a bit, forcing me to fold.

In one hand, villian 3bet and I called. He donked the flop and I bluff-raised on an A-high flop. It didn't work and I folded to his all-in shove.

But, that set me up perfectly to take down a good sized pot a few hands later. That is, until the f'in River.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB ($11.30)
BB ($18.89)
UTG ($19.14)
UTG+1 ($8)
MP1 ($12.41)
MP2 ($10)
CO ($10.15)
Hero (Button) ($8.30)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 10
UTG calls $0.10, 4 folds, Hero bets $0.40, SB raises to $1, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.60
Flop: ($2.20) 7, Q, 10 (2 players)
SB bets $1.50, Hero raises to $3.40, SB raises to $10.30 (All-In), Hero calls $3.90 (All-In)
Turn: ($16.80) 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)
River: ($16.80) K (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: $16.80 | Rake: $0.83

Results:
Hero had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
SB had K, K (three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: SB won $15.97

The session wasn't too bad, though. I finished it only down 1/4 buyin.

February 2011 Recap

I'm just gonna do a quick recap to get it out of the way. I'm way late with it but I still want a record of the month.

As you can see from the graph, it was a very swingy month. I think a lot of that was inconsistent play. Some days I felt like I played great and other days were kinda crap. I made some bad reads occasionally. An example of a bad read would be to not give credit to villian for a flush on the river, since he had bet the flop and turn fairly hard. I didn't expect him to bet his draw. I put him on a big pair or two pair, so I lost a good sized pot with my flopped set. Oh well.

One session I lost 4 BI's. I don't really have a definite stop-loss, but I probably should've thrown in the towel at around 3 BI's.

I was glad to be in the black for the month and I think I re-learned some lessons. I was still kinda gettin back in the groove of playing. I plan to play more hands in March.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Played 10NL FR for 12,366 hands
Monies: $12.80
Bonus: $10 (1st Stellar Reward of the year)
Total: $23
------------------------------------------------

I had a pretty slow start this month. I've been break-even for the most part, but it's starting to pick up. I think I'll go for the Reload Bonus on PokerStars. It will be the first real bonus I've tried to get. As long as my deposit goes through ok, it looks like a pretty easy bonus to clear. I will have to play more hands than I ever have in a month, but I don't see any problems with that. I should have plenty of time to grind.

I thought I'd post a couple of fun hands. I enjoyed playing these so here ya go.

Villian is 22/9 over 100 hands so he's not really a nit and I haven't noticed anything suggesting he's any more than an average player.

OOP, I do a standard 3bet and get called. If I'm the Villian, I hate these low-card flops. They leave such a wide range of overpairs and, in this case, flush and straight draws. I decided to shove all-in, knowing that I'm likely ahead of his range and that he might have a hard time folding on this flop.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG+1 ($4.03)
MP1 ($5.47)
MP2 ($10.13)
CO ($10.93)
Button ($4.24)
Hero (SB) ($9.42)
BB ($5.67)
UTG ($3.30)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.10, 1 fold, CO bets $0.40, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.30, 2 folds, CO calls $0.90
Flop: ($2.80) 4, 7, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $8.12 (All-In), CO calls $8.12
Turn: ($19.04) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($19.04) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $19.04 | Rake: $0.94

Results:
Hero had K, K (two pair, Kings and sevens).
CO had J, J (two pair, Jacks and sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $18.10
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This is my first hand at the table and I have no history with villian. I'm folding this garbage to any bet, but no one does. I get a pretty good flop and I don't want to slow-play two pair but I think it's a good chance for a C/R. When villian bets small, I put him on a draw and raise as intended. When he 3bets, I put him on TPTK or possibly still a good draw. I don't think a better 2-pair is in his range so I shove, expecting a call and scoop a nice pot. I don't get to play strange garbage 2-pair hands very often, but they do have value. Obv, I meant to put him all-in with my 4bet, but missed it slightly.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG+1 ($5.08)
MP1 ($11.13)
MP2 ($3.40)
CO ($9.52)
Button ($8.51)
SB ($4.23)
Hero (BB) ($8)
UTG ($6.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6, 10
UTG calls $0.10, 4 folds, Button calls $0.10, SB calls $0.05, Hero checks
Flop: ($0.40) 6, Q, 10 (4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets $0.20, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.70, UTG raises to $1.20, Hero raises to $6.70, UTG raises to $6.80 (All-In), Hero calls $0.10
Turn: ($14) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($14) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $14 | Rake: $0.69

Results:
Hero had 6, 10 (two pair, tens and sixes).
UTG had K, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $13.31

In the second hand I like leading more than a c/r because given the preflop action it's fair to assume that UTG/maybe BTN are loose passives who won't bet air/draws/middle pair often enough. Flop checking through is kind of a disaster as well. Pot/overbet seems fine here.

GL with the rest of March.

Originally Posted by HoopyDude

In the second hand I like leading more than a c/r because given the preflop action it's fair to assume that UTG/maybe BTN are loose passives who won't bet air/draws/middle pair often enough. Flop checking through is kind of a disaster as well. Pot/overbet seems fine here.

GL with the rest of March.

Thanks for stopping in. I agree with leading being best.

I just 'added to your reputation', lol. WTF - a new feature of the forums. (bottom right link)

I decided not to go for the reload bonus. I don't play enough hands for it to be worth it. If PS still allowed eChecks, I would have done it anyway, but I don't want to hassle with an International money-order, etc.

Poker is not great atm. I should say that I'm not playing well. I'm only breaking even this month, again. I would be doing a lot better if I could find the Fold button. So, for the rest of the month I'm gonna take more time on tough decisions and hopefully fold at the right times.

I've played 10,300 hands so far this month. I've earned 570 VPP and I need 180 VPP to get SilverStar. At this pace it will take me 6 days and there are 10 days left in the month. Piece of cake. I know SS is no big deal. I just thought I'd work it out here for the hell of it.

I got SilverStar today, two days earlier than expected but I have been playing a lot (for me). It's still lol volume for most of you real grinders.

The last 3 days:
Day 1, multiple coolers = down 3 buyins in 1st session, get 1 back in 2nd.
Day 2 and 3 = recover the other 2 buyins.

I'd like to string together a few wins without a bad day taking most of it back. I've won 8 of my last 9 sessions, but the loser was 3 BI's. So it's lolpokerz. On the plus side, I feel like I'm playing much better than the first 3 weeks of the month. I could still put together a decent month with some rungood. I'm close to moving up to 25NL, but I might want to pad the BR a little more. I kinda like the idea of being a BR nit. Also, I think I need to work on some aspects of my game.

March 2011 Recap

Just like last month, I'm just gonna do a quick recap since March was pretty meh. I definitely could have played better early in the month so I'll try to stay more focussed in April. I will say that I was pretty amazed at how good some of the fish were running. By that, I mean that they sucked-out a lot. If not against me, then against others at my tables. I think it was the worst I've seen.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Played 10NL FR for 18,460 hands (a new record)
Monies: $20.75
Bonus: $10 (2nd Stellar Reward of the year)
Total: $30.75

So far, April has sucked balls. I got down 6 BI's early in the week. I managed to get back to +1.5 BI's and then tonight ran like crap again (fish were killin it!) and now I'm down 2 BI's. No big deal, I guess. Ima just grind it out.

Anyway, check this out. After shutting down my god-awful 10NL tables, I decide to rail the Isildur1 vs Urnotindangr match. I watch a few hands and can't believe they're such donks, spewing thousands per hand $$$. So, as soon as I get the chance (Isildur1 took a break) I decide to take a seat and play me some HU4ROLLZ!

Apparently, the spewtards don't want my monies. Here's a screen shot of the message PS showed. Watev.

i thought isildur played on FTP. regardless, sucks that stars wouldn't let you play pokarz on their website. i'd email support and threaten to move to FTP and take isildur back there with you. that'd learn 'em.

I haven't been online since Thursday night when I had a pretty good session. I was kinda pissed to lose the weekend of grinding by being out of town, but it's also good to get away for a weekend w/friends. When I got back home today (Sunday), I logged into PokerStars and tried to jump on a table. I'll post a screenshot here for posterity. Since then, I've been reading up on what grinders are calling Black Friday.



I hope all of us get our rolls back in the end. Whatever happens, I'd guess it will take several months to pan out. I still have a few bucks on another site, so I'll try to log-in tomorrow. I'd like to be able to play enough to maintain some skillz. It would suck to have to stop completely.

Well, PokerStars and the DOJ worked a deal to let US players cash-out. That part of the agreement didn't take nearly as long as I expected. PokerStars showed once again that they are the best run online poker room.

Here's my direct-deposit from the "forced cashout".

April Recap (10NL / 4NL):

The low volume is due to Black Friday (4/15/11) and the worst weather ever recorded in Tennessee. There were 30+ tornadoes and massive power outages. I'll post a few pictures in the next post.

As for poker, the month started badly obv, but it seems so long ago that I don't remember it very well (I spent the last 8 days without power). Anyway, I guess the main point is that, after Black Friday, I found out that I was still able to play on one of the smaller sites where I had about $30 dollars. I actually started out at 10NL since that's what I was used to playing on PS. Of course, I quickly realized that wasn't gonna work, so I dropped to 4NL, the lowest level available. I'm still underolled but I've built the roll to $54.00.

I may not ever get to cash out from this site if the DOJ goes after them, but I guess it's worth the risk just to be able to play.

Hands: 13,422 @ 3.5 BB/100
Current BR = $54.00