Operation: Consistency

I've never had an operation/blog so this is a first for me. I'm grinding $16 turbos on Stars for now. Maybe in the future I'll switch to MTTs, but for now I'm planning on sticking to STTs.

I had a good hard think about my life and decided it was high time I gave poker a full go. Last month I played over 1.8k games, but I feel like my volume is still too low. FFS I gave myself tendinitis in my elbow from too much mouse clicking (yes, I reworded that very carefully). I'm now playing almost exclusively on an Xbox 360 controller using an old version of Xpadder.

No huge goals except I'd like to play at least 2k of games this month and probably more like 2.5k. I would like to reach SuperNova status this year and try and stay in the SharkScope leader board.

This month I aim to buy some new hardware to replace my 6 year old system so I can play more games at once. 18 is about my max before my PC goes on strike, so I'd like to try and up that to 25 if possible.

Last month ...

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot161.jpg

GL, and run good.

look forward to following your OP, not many tourny/sng blogs. GL

Getting pwned today. Around every corner is some reg that is whipping out AA with ninja efficiency. While my push/fold game seem fine I appear to have broken my post-flop game.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
3 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
BTN (3,310)
SB (5,515)
Hero (4,675)

Blinds: 100/200 Ante 25

Pre-Flop: (375, 3 players) Hero is BB 8:diamond: A:heart:
BTN folds, SB calls 100, Hero raises to 600, SB calls 400

Flop: 6:heart: 3:club: J:club: (1,275, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: 5:spade: (1,275, 2 players)
SB bets 1,200, Hero goes all-in 4,050, SB calls 2,850

River: 7:spade: (9,375, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 9,375
Hero shows high card Ace
8:diamond: A:heart:
SB shows a pair of Jacks
J:diamond: Q:diamond:

SB wins 9,375 (net +4,700)

Hero lost 4,675

Honestly, wtf am I doing? C-bet or check-fold.

Ok, things are hotting up on the table. Oh, and wtf is it regs who feel like sitting down with 5 other regs is in any way a profitable use of their time?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nakamura

Oh, and wtf is it regs who feel like sitting down with 5 other regs is in any way a profitable use of their time?

---

they think they're better than the other regs? vpp whoring? haha I dunno, this is why I don't play SnGs though...

What's a good ROI at 16s?

C bet Flop IMO, yea i think turn is pretty bad.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by courtiebee

What's a good ROI at 16s?

---

If you can achieve 10% ROI consistently, you are doing pretty well. Something like 6-8% is pretty solid. Part of the issue is there are almost always at least 2-3 regs on a table.

Yesterday was decent in terms of volume. Around 110 games I think. Wednesday was pretty much a no starter because of the PS server reset and then my internet connection was a bit dodgy. We get screwed in South Africa for internet. Believe it or not, I still play off a 384k line because our telephony company (the only one) wants R400 (around $60) for a 4mb ADSL line rental fee. I'm not sure what the international standards are but we have to pay for a line rental and then an ADSL line rental fee in spite of the line being identical! So we sit in a situation where the data is pretty cheap, but the telephony company bleeds us dry in line rental fees. $%&* Helkom!

I won't get much volume in today because I need to prepare for going away for the weekend. A friend of a friend gave us permission to use their 'farm' for the weekend. I use the word farm rather loosely because the land has actually never been farmed. It's basically a piece of land in the mountains with awesome rivers. Since it's summer time here now and really hot, it's going to be awesome just chilling in the river. The whole trip costs us around $40 incl petrol, food, someone to cook breakfast for us.

I was about to ask wether you had a blog in one of the sng threads.
There isn't enough sng blogs on FTR.

GL and run good

Well, got in some volume today. Pretty brutal out there today, 20 BIs below EV after 75 games. It was going alright from an EV perspective (around 10%) until the last set of 18 games. I must have been bust 7 or 8 times by AA. Meh, I've run good over the last 300-400 games, so whatever. Looking forward to grinding when I get back.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot163.jpg

Jesus, and I was going to complain about my -10BI under EV in 100games runbadaments.

Have a good trip!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nice_aiau

Jesus, and I was going to complain about my -10BI under EV in 100games runbadaments.

Have a good trip!

---

lol ... donkaments!

I was somewhat surprised that when I got back from mini-holiday, I had only dropped two spots in the Sharkscope leader board to 6th position. Maybe the regs aren't so good or don't play much on the weekends? Who knows, anyway the break was nice. We spent a lot of time tanning and swimming in the rivers, drinking beer and expensive wine a mate gets for like $1 a bottle, braaing (read BBQing, except with 'real' meat). I'll post some pics when I find my card reader.

I've been back at the tables and working hard today, playing some decent poker. I probably tilted slightly in the last set and called in a few spots where I should have raise-folded, but whatever. Today's results mean that I'm 33 BI below EV for my last 150 games. It's all good though because I'm still slightly above EV for the year so far. I'll probably try and get in another 20 or so games later this evening when I get back from playing squash.

You gotta grind with the long term in mind! ;)

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot164.jpg

Not much seems to be going right at the moment. Last night I busted my $200 squash racquet against the wall. It wasn't even that hard, but I think I missed an easy drop shot when I caught the racquet against the wall. I had another little swipe at the wall and I think that's when it broke. Time to use some of my (non existent) profits from this month to replace it ;)

Man, PS is specialising in busting my nuts at the moment. It helps I'm not losing actually losing money, but having several days in a row where you run badly is mentally quite demanding. Still I've had longer break-even spells - try 5k of games!

I find it's actually easy now to brush aside a day or two of running bad. Funny how this has progressed from being affected by running badly in one or two games, to 10's of games, to 50 games, to a day, now I can nearly run bad a week without feeling too bad. I guess that's part of progressing from fish to pro. It helps that I almost never tilt regardless of how many bad beats I receive, but running bad for a few days makes me want to escape away from my PC!

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o..._08Feb2011.jpg

Well, not too much happening today. This morning was a non-starter as PS reset their server, which was down from 10am - 2pm LT (for SNGs anyway). Seems a little long, no? I've only played 3 sets today because I only had time for 2 sets before I had to go to salsa lessons. Then I got distracted by Norman Chad and the 2010 WSOP day 4 ... Johnny Chan pwning it! Anyway, I've finally run at EV for the day, around $70, and plan to fit in two more sets later tonight.

I've bounced back up from 8th in the SS leaderboard to 6th. I'm gunning for top 5 right now, but still about $200 short of that. Oh, I forgot ... I got back to back BOP High Orbit Leader Board cashes. It's been a while since that has happened, so nice little bonuses.

Seems like the new computer may have to wait a bit. Sandy Bridge boards have all been recalled due to a flaw on the chipset. It's on all the new i5/i7 motherboards, which is a major fuck up for Intel ... $300 million just pissed away. But more importantly, it means I have to wait a bit so I ensure I get one of the replacement boards and not old stock.

Nearly forgot, experimenting in these spots. Villain is stealing over 50% of the time over 2k of hands (stat filter for number of players) and weak. Blinds are a little lower than I'd like, but most people aren't calling in the blinds without a premium hands, even though they should. Holding an A makes it much less likely villain or blinds are holding an A. I think I can safely fold if villain comes over the top, as most players will need TT+, AQs+ to shove here. His opening range is obviously much wider than that.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,840)
CO (3,434)
Hero (5,682)
SB (1,429)
BB (1,115)

Blinds: 100/200 Ante 25

Pre-Flop: (425, 5 players) Hero is BTN 2:spade: A:spade:
1 fold, CO raises to 500, Hero raises to 1,250, SB goes all-in 1,404, 1 fold, CO folds, Hero calls 154

Flop: 3:spade: Q:heart: 7:club: (3,633, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: 8:heart: (3,633, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: K:diamond: (3,633, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,633
Hero shows high card Ace
2:spade: A:spade:
SB shows three of a kind, Kings
K:club: K:heart:

SB wins 3,633 (net +2,204)

CO lost 525
Hero lost 1,429

damn you put in lots of volume, impressive. gl!

about the a2s hand: i don't think the steal% is going to be that accurate even tho you do have a big sample. chipleader has position on him and is committed to calling both the blinds, so its not a great spot to be in

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fjuanl

damn you put in lots of volume, impressive. gl!

---

Cheers, still way behind the leading players. One of the best $16 regs, sippin_chriss, plays 8 sets of 25 a day (200 games). Now that's amazing!

Ug .... I have a past history with the PF raiser who is very aggro. Caller is just a random donk. Perhaps just calling on the flop is actually better in this spot and give him more opportunity to bluff. idk 3-way I feel uncomfortable giving out free cards.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,500)
MP1 (1,500)
MP2 (1,500)
MP3 (1,500)
CO (1,500)
BTN (1,500)
Hero (1,500)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is SB Q:heart: Q:club:
3 folds, MP2 raises to 60, 2 folds, BTN calls 60, Hero calls 50, 1 fold

Flop: 5:spade: 5:diamond: J:heart: (200, 3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets 150, BTN calls 150, Hero goes all-in 1,440, MP2 goes all-in 1,290, BTN goes all-in 1,290

Turn: 10:spade: (4,520, 3 players, 3 all-in)

River: 4:club: (4,520, 3 players, 3 all-in)

Final Pot: 4,520
BTN shows a full house, Fives full of Jacks
5:club: J:club:
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Fives
Q:heart: Q:club:
MP2 shows two pair, Jacks and Fives
A:spade: J:diamond:

BTN wins 4,520 (net +3,020)

Hero lost 1,500
MP2 lost 1,500

How long does it take to play a set of 25?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nakamura

Ug .... I have a past history with the PF raiser who is very aggro. Caller is just a random donk. Perhaps just calling on the flop is actually better in this spot and give him more opportunity to bluff. idk 3-way I feel uncomfortable giving out free cards.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,500)
MP1 (1,500)
MP2 (1,500)
MP3 (1,500)
CO (1,500)
BTN (1,500)
Hero (1,500)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is SB Q:heart: Q:club:
3 folds, MP2 raises to 60, 2 folds, BTN calls 60, Hero calls 50, 1 fold

Flop: 5:spade: 5:diamond: J:heart: (200, 3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets 150, BTN calls 150, Hero goes all-in 1,440, MP2 goes all-in 1,290, BTN goes all-in 1,290

Turn: 10:spade: (4,520, 3 players, 3 all-in)

River: 4:club: (4,520, 3 players, 3 all-in)

Final Pot: 4,520
BTN shows a full house, Fives full of Jacks
5:club: J:club:
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Fives
Q:heart: Q:club:
MP2 shows two pair, Jacks and Fives
A:spade: J:diamond:

BTN wins 4,520 (net +3,020)

Hero lost 1,500
MP2 lost 1,500

---

You dont 3b/squeeze QQ preflop at 10/20?

It takes around 1 hour to complete a set of 25, although it varies according to time of day. I'm GMT+2 so in the morning not a lot of people from the States are online, so the action is slow. At night the tables fill up much quicker, so sets take less time. You have to also factor in table selection time, which can be up to 20 minutes to avoid sitting down with too many regulars.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nice_aiau

You dont 3b/squeeze QQ preflop at 10/20?

---

I don't 3-bet here because jot down the hands he 4-bets or calls with compared to his opening range. Our hand value is deceptive as well, so aggressive opponents will often hang themselves, given enough rope....

What a day so far. I'm nearly $500 down from 75 games, $EV is around -$70 :puke:. That's around 25 BIs bad. Ain't it weird how it's almost identical to my graph from Friday a few posts up? I'm not hugely worried as I'm rolled deep and I know I'm not making many mistakes. When you wrap your mind around it, I was equally likely to run 25BIs good which would have meant a profit of +$330 for the day and I would have been nearly $700 up for the month. The difference between -$470 and +$330 is $800! So I could have been $800 better off compared to where I am right now and suddenly it's a good month.

I think it highlights the inherent variance in SNGs and why small samples just can't be relied on. I think the minimum is probably 10k before you can draw reasonable conclusions, but then again you probably learnt a thing or two in those 10 000 games....

Anyway, I sill got two more sets to donk off some more chips and add to today's spectacular spew -worse ever I think.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o..._10Feb2011.jpg

Sundays, gotta fucking love 'em

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,500)
MP1 (1,500)
MP2 (1,500)
MP3 (1,500)
CO (1,500)
Hero (1,500)
SB (1,500)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is BTN Q:diamond: Q:spade:
4 folds, MP3 calls 20, 1 fold, Hero raises to 100, 2 folds, MP3 calls 80

Flop: 9:spade: 4:club: J:diamond: (230, 2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets 160, MP3 calls 160

Turn: 6:club: (550, 2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets 400, MP3 calls 400

River: 9:heart: (1,350, 2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero goes all-in 840, MP3 goes all-in 840

Final Pot: 3,030
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Nines
Q:diamond: Q:spade:
MP3 shows two pair, Nines and Fours
4:heart: A:club:

Hero wins 3,030 (net +1,530)

MP3 lost 1,500

Briefly, Friday was pretty much the opposite of the grpah immediately above. EV was around $-50 and I think I made something like $550. I don't know wtf is up with the variance to run 25 BI bad over 75 and then run 30 BI good over 90. Seems well outside 1 standard deviation. Anywhoo, no time to post a graph coz I gotta jet and meet a mate.

Oh and couldn't quite make PS High Orbit Leaderboard for a third week in a row. Was on track after Friday's effort, but half of those games counted towards a Thursday's diabolically bad run and then got munched last night at the tables.

Thanks for posting ur ups and downs. It shows us with much less experience that if we keep doing the right things that in the end the results will be good.

I am multitabling 4 at the 5.50s on FT. I can't imagine being in the late stages on 18 tables and being even close to being able to keep up. How do you do that.

It's pretty rare that I'm sit on all 18 tables when the ICM decisions get complicated, so that helps. Most decisions can be made in <1 second anyway. Half the time I'm waiting for my PC to catch to me!

Otherwise it's just practice. I think Boku87 was playing up to 50 at once during his PokerStars challenges. He is playing MTTs, so he is more likely to be at a full table and therefore have more time before he needs to act again. But I would guess 60 hands/hour is probably normal for a MTT. He needs to be making and performing decisions in around 1-1.5 seconds.

Oh, also AHK scripts, Table Ninja, Xpadder and stacking ftw!

SNG forum is kicking off again. I feel semi-inspired to write some articles again. I have a few ideas in mind. Perhaps I'll dust off my $EV article I started writing about 6 months ago. I know many SNG players seem to run behind EV so it was exploring some of the reasons why this may be the case.

Recently there have been some interesting threads in the SNG forum.

Why we shouldn't shove everything that is +EV. I have some homework to do on this.

Pre-flop bet sizing. I haven't fully explored all of what I want to here. Betting 125 at 25/50 is a lot better than betting 150 for example. I want to explore dealing with min-raising and not spazzing out. This is becoming very important as they are becoming more and more prevalent.

As far as poker goes, so much for spreading the love on Valentine's Day .... absolutely mauled the tables today. ROI = 50% although EV is around 20%. I love donkaments!

Kicked off with a nice score for the high orbit board, 1476 points which should be enough for a top 20 finish this week. Also appear to have made top 3 in Sharkscope board for now.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o..._14Feb2011.jpg

good luck continuing to meet your goals! I'm impressed with what you've written here and in the SNG forum.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vi-Zer0Skill

good luck continuing to meet your goals! I'm impressed with what you've written here and in the SNG forum.

---

Cheers!


F*** me, I'm walking cowboy style after the last two days. I didn't play much yesterday as I was reading up on some theory, writing some stuff, posting hands and speeding up some AHK code I wrote.

I don't sound like a whinny bitch, but I run a million miles one day and then get destroyed the next. Over the last 2 days I've dropped 30 BI over 60 games and my EV is positive! :puke:

All I can say is that this graph is starting to look awfully familiar in this thread.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot166.jpg


Some gems from today....


HAND 1

No Limit Holdem Tournament
7 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
Hero (3,085)
UTG+1 (1,260)
MP (1,270)
CO (1,380)
BTN (3,400)
SB (2,150)
BB (955)

Blinds: 25/50

Pre-Flop: (75, 7 players) Hero is UTG K:club: K:spade:
Hero raises to 125, UTG+1 goes all-in 1,260, 5 folds, Hero calls 1,135

Flop: 8:diamond: 10:club: 7:club: (2,595, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: 7:diamond: (2,595, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: J:heart: (2,595, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 2,595
Hero shows two pair, Kings and Sevens
K:club: K:spade:
UTG+1 shows a straight, Seven to Jack
9:club: 9:heart:

UTG+1 wins 2,595 (net +1,335)

Hero lost 1,260


HAND 2

No Limit Holdem Tournament
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (830)
Hero (2,542)
CO (2,983)
BTN (2,895)
SB (2,780)
BB (1,470)

Blinds: 100/200 Ante 25

Pre-Flop: (450, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1 A:spade: A:club:
1 fold, Hero raises to 438, 2 folds, SB goes all-in 2,755, 1 fold, Hero goes all-in 2,079

Flop: 6:heart: 7:heart: 4:club: (5,622, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: Q:heart: (5,622, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: 3:diamond: (5,622, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 5,622
SB shows three of a kind, Queens
Q:spade: Q:club:
Hero shows a pair of Aces
A:spade: A:club:

SB wins 5,622 (net +2,842)

Hero lost 2,542

Weeeeee .... ridin' the SNG rollacoaster - destination: Suck Out City! Volume wise 1150 games so far this month. I will have to haul ass over the next 10 days to achieve goal of 2.5k games.


http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot167.jpg

Well today has been a total let down. Today was like getting to third base with your girlfriend, you're all happy and she just wants to cuddle.

Pwned the tables all day long getting up to around $300 and then spewed all but $70 over the last 20 games. It was pretty spectacular. In general it's been a pretty sick variance month.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot170.jpg


The human brain loves to pigeon-hole things. We tend to separate and put days into a pigeon-hole, "Oh, that was an awful day, tomorrrow will be better?" But will it, or is it just variance? Are we really playing any differently if we aren't tilting today? The point I'm trying to make is trying to break out of the mold viewing a single day without looking at the broader context. You have to view playing poker as more of a continuum than that or the tables will eat you alive. You'll feel terrible and hate the world in general. That isn't a good place for your mind to be in.

Anyway, I have made decent progress in terms of volume today, the most important thing! I am determined to break 2k games this month, even though it's only 28 days this month. My Birthday is on Thursday, but I guess I'll be grinding away. I'm having a Birthday party with my mates and making potjiekos (read "pot food" kind of stewed for hours in a witches cauldron over a fire). It's an SA tradition! So I guess no poker on Saturday then.

Very nice work grinding through the variance and happy B-day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dneureiter

Very nice work grinding through the variance and happy B-day.

---

Thanks!

Today is my day off since I played over 7 hours yesterday but I eat, shit and breathe poker! Tbh I wouldn't be a very good grinder if I wasn't degen on some level ;). I've just played one set this morning but the tables are so tight, it's hard to make money. I should have just played more games yesterday.

I'm going to run over the ICM from the last set because I feel like I made a few mistakes. At least I'm not happy with my performance. Once I finish that I have work to do on how profitable shoving different ranges is e.g. if 66+,ATs+,AJo+ is 0 EV to shove, what happens if I shove 66? Imo it's got to be -EV since shoving AA is so +EV. There have to be hands that balance things so it's 0 EV to shove the entire range. Perhaps I am misunderstanding things?

I also have work to do on some AHK code that needs cleaning up and more efficient programming. My approach to programming is a pretty blunt one. I get things to work, but I'm not very efficient in how I go about doing it.

Keeping my eye out for a new place to rent too. I moved in with my folks while I was wrapping up studies, but now it's time to move on. I guess this has really motivated me to play so much. I do need a good kick up the arse sometimes.

The problem is rents are still pricey here, they went up after the credit crunch and the Soccer World Cup and haven't really come down. Idk where people are getting the money from because about $1500/month is a decent salary in SA and a single room apartment costs about $600 - $800. I can't decide whether to go for a 2 bed or a 1 bed either. I'm not sure I want to work in the same space I sleep in. Any thoughts from some people who grind from home?

This week has been a real grind for me. I haven't really had a lot of luck in terms of what cards my opponents are rolling over. Some days it feels like every time I felt a hand my opponent turns over a dominating hand!

I'm having a lot of trouble with dumb regulars at the moment. Common SNG ettiquette is not to sit down at a table with more than 1 good player. Most good regulars follow this practice but some consistently fail to table select, which is just fucking annoying and eats into everyone's profits. It's real hard to make a profit when you are sitting with 6 other regulars.

Here is a game from today where I opened some fresh games and sat down with one other regular. Some days I wonder why I even bother to table select as there doesn't seem to be much point. Guys with an orange ring around them are regs I haven't seen do retarded stuff. I want to play a game .... (sorry, watched Saw 7 last night ;)) spot the fish!

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot177.jpg

Anyway, I'm still getting good volume in and I'm at about 1500 for the month, but still have a lot of things to do with finding a new place and arranging food for my party.

Anyway, duty calls. I have to go reg it up now, even though my elbow hurts quite a lot now. I'm trying to stay away from the mouse and just use my Xbox controller for now.

im not a grinder nak but i used to be a pro snooker player, playing mainly from home. i think a lot of parallels can be drawn, esp regards the mental side of it.
looking back i took it too seriously, should have been lighter-hearted about it all. finance was always an issue, but if i could do it again, id break up the day by seeing friends for lunch, that kind of thing. its importnat to break up the monotony and actually enjoy it.

i do have a good friend who is a grinder, he plays from his pc which is set up in the lounge. sometimes the kids are there watching tv, playing with the dog.

the perfect environment in which to play in is a relative concept i guess.

by the way, you mentioned sth about zen and poker if i recall correctly in this blog. if u could lead me in the right direction so i can listen to it it d be appreciated.

thanks and gl...

Thanks, I appreciate the advice. I'll probably look for a 1 bedroom place and set up in the lounge.

I had a quick look for the zen stuff, but can't find them right now. I'll see if a mate still has a copy somewhere. I didn't listen to all of them, coz there are 8, but I listened to enough to really help me control tilt to practically zero.

I have this feeling I'm not going to accomplish much today. I was about to settle down for a set of games before catching the start of South Africa's first cricket game at the CWC, but my gran wants to come over for tea. Since it's my Birthday, I'm sure she wants to give me something. I wonder what I'll get....

HappY birthday. Good luck with the grinding.

Happy B day NAk

Thanks guys.

Man this week has been tough. I feel like I'm being kicked in the nuts by a 2 ton mule every 5 seconds. I'm just not having much luck when I felt hands. When I make decent shoves, opponents turn up retarded hands based on my range.

Hand 1 - Opponent is decent reg, very likely shoving ATC.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
3 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
BTN (3,400)
SB (3,232)
Hero (6,868)

Blinds: 300/600 Ante 50

Pre-Flop: (1,050, 3 players) Hero is BB Q:heart: 6:club:
BTN folds, SB goes all-in 3,182, Hero calls 2,582

Flop: 6:spade: J:club: 8:heart: (6,514, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: 7:spade: (6,514, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: Q:spade: (6,514, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 6,514
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Sixes
Q:heart: 6:club:
SB shows a straight, Five to Nine
5:club: 9:spade:

SB wins 6,514 (net +3,282)

Hero lost 3,232

Hand 2 - 2 hands later he makes a Hero call presumably because we called with Q6o in the previous hand. Ok, the call isn't ridiculous but it's wider than most will call in this spot.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
3 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
Hero (3,286)
SB (2,700)
BB (7,514)

Blinds: 300/600 Ante 50

Pre-Flop: (1,050, 3 players) Hero is BTN 4:heart: A:diamond:
Hero goes all-in 3,236, SB folds, BB calls 2,636

Flop: 3:diamond: Q:spade: J:club: (6,922, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: K:diamond: (6,922, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 9:diamond: (6,922, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 6,922
Hero shows high card Ace
4:heart: A:diamond:
BB shows two pair, Kings and Threes
K:spade: 3:spade:

BB wins 6,922 (net +3,636)

Hero lost 3,286

Soul read? Nah, CO is a reg and smooth calls at a HBL. I pretty much know he always has AA and sometimes KK or QQ. If I had QQ I would definitely fold. I would also fold KK based the fact he would mostly be holding AA, since there would only be 2 other kings in the deck. If he had shoved PF, I might have called with JJ.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (2,300)
UTG+1 (1,115)
MP1 (1,460)
MP2 (2,012)
MP3 (1,463)
CO (1,860)
Hero (1,545)
SB (1,295)
BB (450)

Blinds: 75/150

Pre-Flop: (225, 9 players) Hero is BTN J:diamond: J:club:
4 folds, MP3 raises to 300, CO calls 300, Hero folds, 1 fold, BB goes all-in 450, MP3 calls 150, CO raises to 750, MP3 calls 300

Flop: 10:heart: 5:heart: 7:spade: (2,025, 3 players, 1 all-in)
MP3 checks, CO bets 750, MP3 goes all-in 713

Turn: 9:heart: (3,488, 3 players, 2 all-in)

River: 5:club: (3,488, 3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,488
MP3 shows a full house, Sevens full of Fives
7:heart: 7:club:
CO shows two pair, Aces and Fives
A:diamond: A:club:
BB shows a pair of Fives
A:spade: Q:heart:

MP3 wins 3,451 (net +1,988)

CO collects 37 (net -1,463)
BB lost 450

Busy grinding at the moment, just starting a new set. Phew, life is tough at the $16s right now. I'm making the right sort of plays, just having some shitty luck. It's getting harder to sit down at tables with < 3 regs these days, which just sucks. Not sure if I'll make 2k games this month given yesterday's lack of performance.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot178.jpg

Wow, totally owned over the last couple of hundred games. I need a karma boost or something. Maybe saving a kitten might help....

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot179.jpg

On another note I'm getting a strong feeling that one of the $16 regs is cheating. He wasn't a huge volume player and, IMO, not that strong a player. All of a sudden he is playing up to 450 games in a day and scoring over $1.2k. He had a couple of days of big winnings and deactivated himself from Sharkscope yesterday and today he deactivated himself from Topshark. Seems like an unusual for someone to do if he is a coach and 2nd in the Sharkscope leader board.

I'm trying to avoid him at the moment but it's hard as he is playing such high volume and over-regs quite a bit.

I know who you think. He regs over me all time, although 3 regs are in already and lately he was on the 2nd place in SS. Yesterday i checked his score on pokeroptimizer.com and he has really hot run but still a small sample size.

We might be thinking of different players. I didn't know about pokeroptimizer, but I checked on there and he has played 12k of games according to that.

I emailed support again because I'm not happy with the standard, "He's not running any prohibited software" BS I got the last time. If you are a reasonable programmer it's possible to write software to aid decisions, which is mostly illegal. How do they check for that?

IMO, the the most likely reason for hiding your stats is that you don't want others to see your volume or good results. It it was all above board, you would probably be proud of the volume or good results, not wanting to hide it.

Yea..he has 12k in 6 months, but his good run lasts about 1-2 thousands of SNG's. Believe that there can be a lot of another reasons why he is hiding his stats.
I am pretty sure, that he is just running hot and now there will be a correction soon (also because of his bad table selection).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lance

... his bad table selection

---

Yeah, this bit is doing my head in at the moment. I can't seem to sit down at games without a plethora of regs sitting down with me. I never register to games with more than 1 reg, even if they are pretty bad. They usually have an idea of what to do and I think that more -EV than sitting down with a couple of 39/3 and 78/63's.

Anyway, you are probably right. Time to take my whipping at the digital felt.

Wow, given an utter beasting today.... Nearly 30 BI bad over 90 games :puke:.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot180.jpg

Here's an interesting hand. I have a good read on UTG+1, a regular. I know he doesn't limp suited connectors and generally only limps PPs from an EP like this. This is quite an unbalanced strategy since, when he calls the flop, I know he has a set eights. How do I know? Well, he would have raised his top pairs like AA or KK, so he can't have those. We already know he doesn't have suited connectors, so he isn't on some random flush draw. He won't pitch up AKs or AQs here since he would have raised those PF. He isn't limping any AT, KT or Tx hands either. Since we know he needs a hands to call our flop bet, it's highly likely his hand is a set of eights.

How do I know I would have checked the turn and folded the river? I got stacked yesterday in exactly the same situation against another reg. I read my opponent for having a set of twos, called a min re-raise on turn and stacked off. I learnt my lesson and am starting to trust my soul reads more.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,530)
UTG+1 (1,440)
MP1 (1,500)
MP2 (1,480)
MP3 (1,580)
CO (1,520)
Hero (1,470)
SB (1,480)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is BTN Q:diamond: 10:diamond:
1 fold, UTG+1 calls 20, 2 folds, MP3 calls 20, CO calls 20, Hero calls 20, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: 8:heart: 10:spade: 10:heart: (110, 5 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 checks, CO checks, Hero bets 75, BB folds, UTG+1 calls 75, MP3 folds, CO calls 75

Turn: Q:spade: (335, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, CO checks, Hero bets 180, UTG+1 raises to 544, CO goes all-in 1,425, Hero goes all-in 1,195, UTG+1 goes all-in 801

River: 9:club: (4,480, 3 players, 3 all-in)

Final Pot: 4,480
CO shows two pair, Queens and Tens
Q:heart: 9:heart:
Hero shows a full house, Tens full of Queens
Q:diamond: 10:diamond:
UTG+1 shows a full house, Eights full of Tens
8:diamond: 8:spade:

Hero wins 4,430 (net +2,960)

CO collects 50 (net -1,470)
MP3 lost 20
BB lost 20
UTG+1 lost 1,440

I've run so badly lately I feel like I want to puke. I haven't tilted, I just seem to be running really badly. Over the last week or so, I have dropped about $1k. I reckon this must be one my worst down-swings, if not the worst. I've decided to give it a break for a bit as I can feel the frustration setting in. This means I definitely won't make 2k of games this month, a pity but there is no shame in fitting in 1.8k into a short month. I might have a few more games after I take a swim and clear my mind for a bit. I always find swimming quite therapeutic, almost like it takes the stress away.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot181.jpg

I figure wtf, I may as well turn this into a bad beat and fucking variance thread. I have been beaten, bashed and crushed at the $16s pretty much from the day I started. I would say the first 3000 or so games I was perhaps a little intimidated at playing the stakes, so I didn't play all that well. I definitely made a lot of mistakes and took some abuse from 1 or two regulars, which caused me to have some self doubts and move back down to the $6.50's. A word of advice, don't ever listen to abuse from poker players in the chat box. For one, if they are typing abuse in the chat box then you are a) making them uncomfortable (+EV) and b) they haven't learned to stop berating the fish, which means they probably aren't very good poker players, even if they regularly play the game.

Since those days I feel like I have learned a lot and play much better overall. I would say my 'true' ROI is probably 6 - 7%, which is in line with my EV results since then. It's true ROIs are dropping all the time at the $16s as more and more good players fill up the $16 games, due in part to PS' retarded rake structure. A $15 game takes $1 in rake (6.67%) a $25 game takes $2 in rake (8%). Great business model guys! So not only do the games get harder because the players are better, they help themselves to more rake too! A lot of players would probably move up if the rake situation improved and was generally better structured. Anyway, I wandered a bit off the point. The best players at the $16s, sippin_criss and envision9, made their monies at 8% last year. That's probably two percent off what was achievable 2 to 3 years ago. Since I'm a naturally competitive guy, I want to be close to the top. I want to be in the topmost echelon of players. I want to be winning at close to 8% ROI. I can comfortably say that I'm not there yet, but I'm also not that far off either.

I guess I'm having a lot of trouble reconciling my EV and my winnings. I know Ev lines are evil and we shouldn't really focus on them too much, but on the other hand we shouldn't be running at 60% EV either.

I just feel frustrated I'm sitting at 3% ROI when I feel like I should be so much closer to my long term goal. I know I have to just keep on grinding away and hope things improve a bit. The frustrating thing is that just because I have run bad over 8k of games doesn't mean I'm any more likely to start running good. Personally, I find that more annoying than running bad in the first place.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot182.jpg

Weee .... hardly any MTT experience, but leading the Battle of the Planets $50k with 7k chips after 20 mins. Was fortunate enough to be seated at a table with 2 players sitting out, 2 retards and a nit. Already stacked the 3 active players and will hopefully take the two players who are sitting out stacks before the table are adjusted. Was running crazy laggy, like 75/55, before I knocked out everyone but everyone was playing so fit or fold it was like free money.

Given I have no idea how to play MTT's I'm sure I'll bust out before the money, but who knows.

Ah, didn't realise it was a shoot-out game.... you play until there is a winner of all the chips on each table. Winners are then seated at a table with the other winners. That explains a lot!

Since there are 81 tables and 81 players place, I have already won $195. If I win the next table, I progress to the final table. I don't have a lot of MTT experience, but I know I should play ftw and not scared money.

gogogo, GL

Back in action. First serious hand. I'm not sure, but I think the turn is a check as opposed to a bet-fold. There are a lot of draws and I don't want to get shoved off my hand. Villain is a 40/0 type btw. River, it seemed like he hand hit something on flop or had a draw. I don't think he is the type to bet a missed draw, so I went for thin value. Ended up value-towning myself :(. Wow, what a way to play TP + FD on the turn.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
Hero (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,730)
MP1 (1,270)
MP2 (1,430)
MP3 (1,360)
CO (2,100)
BTN (1,050)
SB (1,480)
BB (1,580)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is UTG 10:spade: 10:club:
Hero raises to 60, 3 folds, MP3 calls 60, CO calls 60, 3 folds

Flop: 2:diamond: 5:heart: 3:diamond: (210, 3 players)
Hero bets 135, MP3 folds, CO calls 135

Turn: Q:club: (480, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: 7:spade: (480, 2 players)
Hero bets 240, CO calls 240

Final Pot: 960
CO shows a pair of Queens
8:diamond: Q:diamond:
Hero shows a pair of Tens
10:spade: 10:club:

CO wins 960 (net +525)

MP3 lost 60
Hero lost 435

GL Nak, Run good.(looks like your due)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fulksy

GL Nak, Run good.(looks like your due)

---

Thanks, looks like it might be all over now. The guy in the hand above is actually a monster player and has limped 40% of pots because people play so passively. I actually see why he checked the turn in the above hand. He already has 5700 of the 13500 chips.

Meh, busted by the monster player. He was min-betting every button. We have a super-nitty image, I didn't find many spots to 3-bet or get too many decent cards. He tanked before making the call.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG (825)
CO (2,900)
BTN (5,700)
SB (2,215)
Hero (1,860)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-Flop: (150, 5 players) Hero is BB 8:heart: A:heart:
2 folds, BTN raises to 200, 1 fold, Hero goes all-in 1,860, BTN calls 1,660

Flop: K:spade: 8:spade: 3:diamond: (3,770, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: 7:spade: (3,770, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 2:spade: (3,770, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,770
BTN shows a pair of Kings
K:diamond: Q:diamond:
Hero shows a pair of Eights
8:heart: A:heart:

BTN wins 3,770 (net +1,910)

Hero lost 1,860

how do shootouts work in terms of math of calling(would you consider the tourney a bunch of winner takes all sngs, until you reach FT), seems pretty thin against a "super nit"

You can play shoot-outs like a winner takes all SNG until you are close to the FT. It's kind of weird because unless you win the table, you get $195. But if you bust out, you don't have a shot at the $12k prize. So you can't play it quite like a WTA as there must be some bubble factor stuff in there.

When he calls he really isn't in that bad a shape if we are shoving any pair, most broad-ways and about 1/2 our aces. When he tanks he is probably considering if we play QQ+ this way, which we may do but we might just flat with those as well increasing his equity against our shoving range. In this format taking thin edges is probably fine as he isn't out if he loses, but winning gives him a huge shot at the FT.

Board:
Equity Win Tie
MP2 46.90% 44.32% 2.58% { KQs }
MP3 53.10% 50.52% 2.58% { 22+, A6s+, KTs+, QJs, JTs, A9o+, KJo+, QJo }


I think I might have cocked this hand up. Villain who leads is an idiot, re-raiser is villain from above. The plan was to CR a c-bet, but the heavy action sort of threw me off balance. I really think getting it in here is best as I expect the monster player to flat a bunch of his better hands here. Idk I need advice from more experienced players in this spot. I folded because every time he raised so far, he had a good hand, coupled with the fact he is limping everything, so we can't discount TT+ from his range either.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG (1,175)
UTG+1 (1,300)
CO (6,050)
BTN (1,765)
Hero (1,860)
BB (1,350)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-Flop: (150, 6 players) Hero is SB 8:heart: 9:heart:
2 folds, CO calls 100, 1 fold, Hero calls 50, BB checks

Flop: 5:diamond: 8:diamond: 7:spade: (300, 3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets 300, CO goes all-in 5,950, Hero folds, BB goes all-in 950

Turn: 3:diamond: (7,500, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: 9:spade: (7,500, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 7,500
CO shows a straight, Five to Nine
6:spade: A:heart:
BB shows a pair of Fives
K:diamond: 5:heart:

CO wins 7,500 (net +1,450)

Hero lost 100
BB lost 1,350

^^^ man, when I look at the hand now I really feel like I set a plan in motion and hit the fucking eject button.

Hindsight is always so perfect ... sigh.

Meh, don't feel too bad as the monster player actually won 1st place and the $12k prize Battle of the Planets: Spackn ships the $12K in February victory - PokerStars Poker Blog.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot the grind is back on for March. It's all go go go, except tomorrow is going to be 37 deg or 99 Fahrenheit for all you US nits. Might just end up in the pool loads :).

back to not fully understanding the math of shootouts, but i call here i think u have enough equity against their ranges here, especially when i need all the chips to advance.

Quote:

---

except tomorrow is going to be 37 deg or 99 Fahrenheit for all you US nits. Might just end up in the pool loads :smile:.

---

fak i live in the wrong place, its going to be ~-40 degrees (with windchill) here tomorrow.

RUNGOOD IN MARCH!!!!!

Yeah, I think felting 98s hand is fine. It just shows my lack of MTT experience. In SNGs you are almost always behind in these spots, unless your opponents are complete tards.

I could use a little luck this month, but feeling much better after taking a break yesterday and playing some 10NL 6-max cash. Players are sooo weak-tight it's hilarious. You can c-bet 100% of time and expect to take down 75-80% of pots and the best thing is no one adjusts! I wish SNGs were like that. Maybe it's just me but I see a lot of floating of c-bets these days. I'm starting to fire more seconds shells on good turn cards, but generally I just spazz out.

EDIT: The correct correction is to c-bet fewer hands and value bet more as well as firing second seconds on occasions we happen to be bluffing.

Meh, not the best start to this month. It's annoying to be playing decent poker and consistently losing. Anyway here are 3-bet/4-bet spots where I see players consistently getting it wrong.

Hand 1

Villain isn't exactly a reg, but I have a load of hands on him. Fairly tightish and aggressive PF. This is a spot where you should elect to smooth call hands like AA, KK or QQ. Your opponent has a tight range of probably AQo+, TT+ .... depending on the type of player. 3-betting just makes him (correctly) fold hands like AQo, AQs, TT and JJ. By smooth calling we give him the opportunity to spazz out on the flop, which he duly obliges and open-shoves TT, which is just awful.

Think for a moment about our range. If he thinks we are loose, we might have some broadways and PPs in our range, AK, AQ, AJ maybe as well ... although I'd never flat with those hands (way unbalanced but villains are so terrible they don't notice). The only worse hands calling are PPs <TT and open shoving is a bad way to extract any value from them. I see this all the time and I know why people do it because I used to do it. Poker isn't about winning pots, it's about getting opponents to play big pots when they have a weaker range. People bet here because they don't want to lose the pot to AK, which is a fucking dumb reason to bet.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,545)
UTG+1 (1,590)
MP1 (1,460)
MP2 (1,520)
CO (1,635)
BTN (1,430)
SB (2,540)
Hero (1,780)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-Flop: (150, 8 players) Hero is BB K:club: K:diamond:
UTG raises to 250, 6 folds, Hero calls 150

Flop: 4:diamond: 5:diamond: 4:heart: (550, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG goes all-in 1,295, Hero calls 1,295

Turn: Q:heart: (3,140, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 9:heart: (3,140, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,140
Hero shows two pair, Kings and Fours
K:club: K:diamond:
UTG shows two pair, Tens and Fours
10:club: 10:spade:

Hero wins 3,140 (net +1,595)

UTG lost 1,545


Hand 2

Same villain, similar mistake. Given our tight opening range and how regs usually play this hand, 3-betting with QQ here is a really bad plan. He is forcing me to play correctly by forcing me to fold hands like TT or JJ or AQo etc. He wants to take a flop against me with those hands in my range. It's obvious isn't it! Instead he 3-bets, I shove, gg ... I didn't flat in this spot because he has demonstrated a lot of strength by betting 1/3 of his stack. He is never folding PF, but may fold if he doesn't like the flop.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,210)
Hero (1,500)
MP1 (950)
MP2 (1,485)
MP3 (1,240)
CO (1,495)
BTN (1,425)
SB (2,375)
BB (1,820)

Blinds: 25/50

Pre-Flop: (75, 9 players) Hero is UTG+1 A:diamond: A:heart:
1 fold, Hero raises to 125, 1 fold, MP2 raises to 400, 5 folds, Hero goes all-in 1,500, MP2 goes all-in 1,085

Flop: K:spade: 10:club: 4:heart: (3,060, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: 3:diamond: (3,060, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: J:heart: (3,060, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,060
Hero shows a pair of Aces
A:diamond: A:heart:
MP2 shows a pair of Queens
Q:spade: Q:heart:

Hero wins 3,060 (net +1,560)

MP2 lost 1,485


Hand 3

The correct way to respond in these situations is to flat. Villain is a tightish player and likely has a premium hand in this spot. 4-betting just makes him play correctly, but flatting him allows him to spazz out when his AK misses the flop. Coincidently I see that all the time when people get flatted holding AK/AQ. This hand plays itself since his range is likely JJ+,AQo+. The flop hits his range so hard, it's an easy check-fold to the river.


No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,500)
Hero (1,500)
MP2 (1,500)
MP3 (1,500)
CO (1,500)
BTN (1,500)
SB (1,500)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is MP1 Q:club: Q:heart:
2 folds, Hero raises to 60, 4 folds, SB raises to 180, 1 fold, Hero calls 120

Flop: A:heart: 2:diamond: A:spade: (380, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: 9:heart: (380, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: J:heart: (380, 2 players)
SB bets 350, Hero folds

Final Pot: 730

Quote:

---

Maybe it's just me but I see a lot of floating of c-bets these days.

---

i'm finding C/R is running rampant, i've been moving my cbet to the turn lately

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fulksy

i'm finding C/R is running rampant, i've been moving my cbet to the turn lately

---

Good idea. I do, but not often, also shift my c-bets to the turn. If you are IP, you really want to pick hands that don't have a whole lot of show-down equity, since we get to see the river for free and may get to a cheap show-down. OOP we can probably fire a wider range as villain should fire pretty much everything if we check twice.

I'm working hard on my game at the moment. I have been trying out some cash stuff, 6-max in particular. I have played some full nit in the past, but after watching a couple of videos, I feel confident I can beat 10NL, which I am doing after 1.5k of hands even after stacking off like a spazz a couple of times in 3-bet/4-bet spots. I guess that's why we start at 10NL and not at 100NL. I'm just 4-tabling at the moment until I get the hang of the game but, tbh, I don't see how one can do much more than 6-8 table and still get good reads. This coming from someone who can 20-table SNGs.

Speaking about SNGs, that isn't going too well for me at the moment. I'm getting in good volume, but just don't seem to be getting the rub of the green. I thought maybe today I had broken my duck when I climbed up to $300, but I donked it all off in the last set. I ran through the ICM and there no complete spew. There was a hand where I had 5BB (with antes) and shoved 33, which turns out should have been a fold. I also missed a couple of close shoves but nothing too bad. It just seems like I got dominated a whole bunch.

I must say that incorporating some of the 6-max stuff into my SNG game is a bit of a ball. I realise that SNG players are complete nits when it comes to 3-bets during the early levels. You can 3-bet a whole bunch of hands and expect a high % of folds from most players. I'm also flatting a bit more and taking hands IP, bet-folding as opposed to check-folding turn or river and a whole host of other fun stuff.

This is a classic spot where I might have tried to check down to a cheap river in the past. I don't expect most villains are thinking on the level that the ace is a good card for me to rep and I can expect a large part of his range that has good equity against us to fold the turn. If he raises we obviously fold, if he calls, we shut down on river unless we complete our draw .... easy game.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
CO (2,085)
BTN (2,885)
Hero (4,605)
BB (3,925)

Blinds: 100/200 Ante 25

Pre-Flop: (400, 4 players) Hero is SB 6:heart: 5:heart:
2 folds, Hero calls 100, BB checks

Flop: Q:heart: 4:club: 3:spade: (500, 2 players)
Hero bets 300, BB calls 300

Turn: A:spade: (1,100, 2 players)
Hero bets 650, BB folds

Final Pot: 1,750

Peace.

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o...eenShot183.jpg

I feel so out of it today. I can't concentrate, I feel tired. Getting to bed at 3am might have something to do with that. I was going to get to bed at 2am, but I figured I'd watch an episode of the soprano's. I know I have some serious work to do today. It's nearly 2pm and I still haven't settled down and played a game yet. I don't have anything planned for tonight, so I might just do a little grinding. I don't normally grind Friday nights, so I wonder what the opposition is like? I normally quite like playing on Fridays as I feel like there is a higher proportion of fish to regs on the tables. It's probably people just slacking off from work.

Anyway, time to get my grind on for the day.

Another day, another break-even day. This kind of stuff can really test your patience! So far I've made $82.50 this month.

I feel like my game is really progressing a bunch since I started playing cash. As SNG players we tend to think that we can't be creative or get too out of line. This is generally true for the later levels, but the opening levels are much more like cash than one might think. Since I have quite a creative mind, I'm really enjoying adding some trickier aspects to my game. Regs seem to be fucking with me less too, which is great.

I've gone back to a love I used to have, which is growing vegetables. I planted up some trays of lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and a couple of other vegetable types. Tomorrow I might put my back into clearing out all the grass that has grow into the old beds over the years. I hate that kind of work, but it's too manual for my folks to do these days. I'm looking forward to finally getting it all going again.

actually got to thank you a bit, i was falling into the straight nit till push/fold mode(not a lot of fun) , but seeing some of your recent posts got me thinking more about the game, and adding in stuff that i would normally never try. the games are becoming more fun again. i'm also in having a pretty big spell of bad variance(not by your standards since you proabably play as many games in a month then i have played total.) i think working on my game has been helping me from getting super tilted, and i think adding more to my game will make it much more profitable.

GL with the rest of march, it'll turn around

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fulksy

actually got to thank you a bit, i was falling into the straight nit till push/fold mode(not a lot of fun) , but seeing some of your recent posts got me thinking more about the game, and adding in stuff that i would normally never try. the games are becoming more fun again. i'm also in having a pretty big spell of bad variance(not by your standards since you proabably play as many games in a month then i have played total.) i think working on my game has been helping me from getting super tilted, and i think adding more to my game will make it much more profitable.

GL with the rest of march, it'll turn around

---

Cheers. I aim to please ;)

Just focusing on volume at the moment and things that are in my control. I love stacking and auto-closing tourneys when I bust out, because it's super-easy to control tilt when you don't see don't your AA being busted by T9 sooted.

Yesterday we played an FTR SNG experiment game. Rage2100 pwned the table getting the bullets no fewer than 5 times to end up crushing the table. I was unfortunately the first man out, busting out even ahead of the sleeping Baudib! On reflection, I think there are a couple of spots that I might have shoved in. They are pretty close though and probably not big mistakes either way.

On a plus note I ended up staying up to 3am to make sure I got in at least 100 games against the weaker Sunday opposition. You have to control the tilt when UTG limps and there are 2 callers, you raise big, UTG and another player call. Flop comes out KQxtt, you stack off with AA and get shown KQo ... gg. Playing these really bad players is just so profitable though.

Day's Profits - $314 at 17.5% ROI

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nakamura

...

Day's Profits - $314 at 17.5% ROI

---

nice hand, you deserved it. I'll PM you my skype / email if you ever want to talk about poker, want to get more serious about working on my game and moving up.

Cool, hit me up. I'm not often on Skype, but I should probably change that habit.

I had another good yesterday, around 70 games for $195. I usually take Mondays off, but it's my parents' Birthdays today and on Friday. So I need to do a little shopping today. It turns out it won't take me long at all, so I should be able to get 90 games in. I think I have over 500 games under my belt this month already, which is decent volume.

I think I might go kloofing on another river trip this weekend. We pick a river and follow it down it's course, swimming and jumping into pools. We might sleep on one of the sandy banks alongside the river as well. The trip is a bit up in the air at the moment as only my mate has committed so far.

I feel like I might have done something to my back while playing squash yesterday. Every Monday night I play squash at the local squash club. It's a round-robin against whoever decides to pitch up, so sometimes you play weaker players, sometimes you get crushed. Mostly I just get crushed.

Only the two sets so far today, more to come later. The EV is around $100, but it turns out I have lost about $20. I have been on a mini-burner recently, so it's fine really. I'm pretty much around EV for the month, which is great although making up the grand difference from last month would be nice ;)

God dammit, I wish browsers wouldn't auto-click the back button when you double hit the backspace key. I just typed out this whole thing and lost it when my browser navigated itself back to the blog forum.

Take 2.....

Today was totally standard. The most pleasing thing was volume, since the results are pretty terrible. Results are secondary anyway, I'm focusing on working on my game and making sure I get in my volume regardless of what happens on the table. I try to look at it as earning an hourly wage, which really helps me focus on getting in some decent volume. As long as you don't tilt, stopping playing for the day because you lost or won $$$ is just dumb.

Today's Profit: -$122 (EV +$115)
Today's Volume: 92 games
Month's Profit: +$470 (EV +$622)
Month's Volume: 622 games

Not much to report. I played my quota for the day, adding an extra table at times. For some or other reason my computer ran really laggy in the last set and I timed out a bunch of times on some tables. Annoyingly, TN didn't automatically click the "I'm back" button. So I had to run through all the tables finding ones I was sitting out on. Definitely -EV.

I did a bit of work on preparing the vegetable patch during my lunch time. I plan to surprise my mom for her Birthday as the vegetable garden is out of sight and I'm sure she hasn't seen the work I have done so far. I also went to dancing lessons again today and we picked up a couple of new moves ... always a challenge.

Today's Profit: +$138 (EV +$164)
Today's Volume: 96 games
Month's Profit: +$608 (EV +$786)
Month's Volume: 718 games

still below EV but the tides are starting to change, rungood coming IMO.

GLGL!

Today was sick. I feel sick. I want to punch the crap out of my computer screen and pound the remains into tiny little pieces. I do realise that thinking in this manner won't change the fact that I may have played like a donk or the fact I lost $150 today. I need to pick up the pieces (of my computer screen) and get right back into the trenches tomorrow.

I guess I feel bad because I got coolered so many times, it just looks bad from both an EV and winnings perspective. Some of the random things that happened today. I stacked on on monotone boards with KK, only to be shown dumb shit like 74s. In one pot, villain bets flop small OOP, I call with a gut-shot. He checks the turn, I bet the turn since I picked up the second nut FD to go with my GS. Flush comes in (and pairs the board) and he checks the river and I commit myself betting half pot, get re-raised and he shows 55 that made a set on the flop and filled up on the river .... :facepalm:

Wow, I realised today that there is nearly $3k difference between my EV and winnings over 9k of games at the $16s. It's probably outside 1 standard deviation, but what can you do other than play and hope things improve?

Today's Profit: -$142 (EV -$93)
Today's Volume: 100 games
Month's Profit: +$466 (EV +$693)
Month's Volume: 818 games

A gem from the last set I played.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,500)
MP1 (1,500)
MP2 (1,500)
MP3 (1,380)
CO (1,500)
BTN (1,640)
Hero (1,480)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is SB Q:club: K:club:
3 folds, MP2 calls 20, 2 folds, BTN calls 20, Hero calls 10, BB checks

Flop: 5:club: 8:club: J:club: (80, 4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP2 checks, BTN bets 220, Hero calls 220, BB folds, MP2 folds

Turn: 7:club: (520, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 480, Hero goes all-in 1,240, BTN calls 760

River: Q:heart: (3,000, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,000
BTN shows a straight flush, Five to Nine
6:club: 9:club:
Hero shows a flush, King high
Q:club: K:club:

BTN wins 3,000 (net +1,520)

Hero lost 1,480
BB lost 20
MP2 lost 20

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,500)
MP1 (1,500)
MP2 (1,500)
MP3 (1,380)
CO (1,500)
BTN (1,640)
Hero (1,480)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 9 players) Hero is SB Q:club: K:club:
3 folds, MP2 calls 20, 2 folds, BTN calls 20, Hero calls 10, BB checks

Flop: 5:club: 8:club: J:club: (80, 4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP2 checks, BTN bets 220, Hero calls 220, BB folds, MP2 folds

Turn: 7:club: (520, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 480, Hero goes all-in 1,240, BTN calls 760

River: Q:heart: (3,000, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,000
BTN shows a straight flush, Five to Nine
6:club: 9:club:
Hero shows a flush, King high
Q:club: K:club:

BTN wins 3,000 (net +1,520)

Hero lost 1,480
BB lost 20
MP2 lost 20
[/QUOTE]

:wall: -->:cut:--->:drunk:--->:pray:

I don't like your play very much with KQ since you block the other likely card he can call you with that you beat.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bikes

I don't like your play very much with KQ since you block the other likely card he can call you with that you beat.

---

On reflection, I agree.

Opponent in this hand is a complete spazz, but this isn't a reason to bet or call. At the time I definitely wasn't happy to the 4th card to the flush since Ac is in his range. The way he overbets the flop, I think I correctly conclude his range is weighed to smaller flushes and Ac. On the turn Ac gets there as well as hands like Tc9c, 9c6c, 6c4c. I fail to adapt to the turn and make a bad shove IMO :( I should just fold, this is why I epically suck at cash.

I have basically tracked sideways for the last 500 games or so. In particular I tend to be shoving and finding myself in a lot of dominated spots. There really isn't a whole lot you can do about these spots if you are ranging your opponent correctly and shoving the right range.

Today I have played around 100 games and made just a small amount. I ran lucky in my 4th set and made around $220 before I crashed and burned in the my final set. I should have made about $20 off the last set and ended up dropped about $200. On a frustration scale at the moment, I'd say I'm at about an 8. On the plus side though my volume is good for the month and I have now cleared 25 000 VPP, so I'm 1/4 of the way to SuperNova and ahead of schedule.

Today's Profit: +$33.50 (EV +$114)
Today's Volume: 100 games
Month's Profit: +$499 (EV +$801)
Month's Volume: 996 games

I have taken today off as I played quite a bit yesterday. I decided to fit in some games yesterday, since I know this week is going to be quite busy for me as well as the fact I'm going away this weekend. I was up until 3am playing poker, which is pretty unusual for me. I ran pretty badly in the extra games I played so the post above should really read,

Today's Profit: -$93.50 (EV +$182)
Today's Volume: 140 games
Month's Profit: +$371 (EV +$870)
Month's Volume: 1036 games

I dabbled a bit in cash again today. I am playing 10NL 6-max on FTP in my spare time to add another dimension to my poker skills. I spewed really hard today losing 3 BIs in an hour. I sat down at some tables where I was getting the crap 3-bet out of me. I did close some of those, but I just seemed to end up more aggro tables. In the end I made some really bad decisions in 3-bet/4-bet pots because I don't fully understand what constitutes a good or bad spot yet. I'm glad I'm only playing 10NL :)

the more i think about that hand i abso hate it. I think your ROI would improve in leaps and bounds if you worked on your level 1-3 play.

I'll just take the KQs hand for starters.
Preflopz - You have a top 5% hand. Iso those limpers! Punish them for their K7o calls or Q3s. Fish in SNGS are just all kinds of limp/cally c/folding atrocious. Like 80-90 chips is a good bet here. Yeah you are OOP but your hand is just so dominate compared to all the crap they l/c.

Flop - LEAD! You hit one of the nut best flops for your hand and all kinds of worse will call. TP no club. Gutters with a club that are drawing dead. 2 pairs. The naked Ac. You leave so much value left on the table by not leading here.

As played CRAI! He bet 3x pot and you have the second nuts. He obviously likes his hand and if he has the nuts well it's a cooler. But people make all kinds of awful mistakes here. Like having a bad flush or playing QQ-AA like a tard or a retarded 2 pair. This is a fist pump praise Lee c/shove as played.

Turn. Certainly do not c/f. You have the eff 2nd nuts. Let him blast away with w/e. Again if he has the Ac cooler but based on his flop play I would weight his range away from it. I'm not saying he cannot have it but c/c here for sure and re-evaul the river, most likely c/cing again. the turn c/jam is so much button clicking that like c'mon.

c/c >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>c/jam>>>>>>>>>>>c/f

from what I read in your blog you talk about running bad late with w/e but if you work on your postflop game in the early-mid your ROI will grow drastically and you will be moving up quickly. a lot of sng/tourney friends of mine have talked about not needing postflop and i think nothing could be further from the truth. you are playing a game infested with fish and they will make giant mistakes in every part of the sng. so take advantage.

Thanks bikes, my post-flop game could use a lot of work for sure. I think I understand most of what you are saying here and it makes sense. Thanks for helping me out.

I think Fnord said something about poker giving you a whack for bringing in the paper and a milkbone for peeing on the carpet. Today I feel like I played pretty well, but I certainly got a whack on the bum. I wanted to make sure I was playing better both pre-flop and post-flop. I wanted to isolate the fish as well as play better post-flop in general.

Hand 1

No Limit Holdem Tournament
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (3,030)
UTG+1 (1,580)
MP1 (1,500)
MP2 (1,490)
Hero (CO) (1,470)
BTN (1,460)
SB (1,470)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 10/20

Pre-Flop: (30, 8 players) Hero is CO K:diamond: Q:diamond:
1 fold, UTG+1 calls 20, 2 folds, Hero raises to 80, BTN calls 80, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls 60

Flop: 5:diamond: 10:diamond: 7:club: (270, 3 players)
UTG+1 bets 60, Hero raises to 220, BTN calls 220, UTG+1 calls 160

Turn: 2:diamond: (930, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets 540, BTN folds, UTG+1 folds


Hand 2

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,290)
UTG+1 (1,580)
MP1 (1,470)
MP2 (1,580)
Hero (MP3) (1,450)
CO (1,720)
BTN (1,450)
SB (1,480)
BB (1,480)

Blinds: 15/30

Pre-Flop: (45, 9 players) Hero is MP3 Q:club: A:heart:
UTG calls 30, 3 folds, Hero raises to 120, 4 folds, UTG calls 90

Flop: 6:diamond: K:spade: Q:spade: (285, 2 players)
UTG bets 120, Hero calls 120

Turn: 8:spade: (525, 2 players)
UTG bets 120, Hero calls 120

River: 8:heart: (765, 2 players)
UTG bets 300, Hero calls 300

Final Pot: 1,365
UTG shows a pair of Eights
9:club: 10:club:
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Eights
Q:club: A:heart:


Hand 3

I think this is just a call given the board, not too sure though.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (3,072)
UTG+1 (1,290)
MP1 (2,525)
MP2 (1,303)
Hero (CO) (1,500)
BTN (1,255)
SB (1,000)
BB (1,555)

Blinds: 25/50

Pre-Flop: (75, 8 players) Hero is CO 6:spade: 6:diamond:
4 folds, Hero raises to 125, 2 folds, BB calls 75

Flop: 3:spade: 9:spade: A:club: (275, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 162, BB calls 162

Turn: 8:spade: (599, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: 6:club: (599, 2 players)
BB bets 500, Hero calls 500

Final Pot: 1,599


Today's Profit: -$349 (EV +$20)
Today's Volume: 80 games
Month's Profit: +$23 (EV +$890)
Month's Volume: 1116 games

Pretty sick last two days ....

http://i383.photobucket.com/albums/o..._March2011.jpg

Bikes said a lot of valuable advices, but some of it can't be so useful for STT's.

My point of view:
I think preflop completing with KQs is absolutely fine, i am pretty sure that any top reg wouldn't played it differently.
Flop: you can lead out or make a strong c/r, but definitely not c/c because another club might kill any action and also you should protect your hand against sombody who has the Ace of clubs.

Your graph is pretty sick but i am sure you will go up soon again....
GL

Thanks for the thoughts Lance. Yeah post-flop is a total balls-up.

Unfortunately today I've dropped another $140 so far from 40 games. I feel like I'm getting utterly crushed all the time. I just took a look at my stats ... I've basically broken even over the last 2.5k of games in spite of making around $2.5k in Sklansky bucks. I don't know whether to be happy or sad.

Success! I finally actually made some money. I just feel relief after my recent form.

On a side note, heading off to the same farm I went to last time to go kloofing in the river this weekend. It should be a welcome break and time away from poker. This reminds me that I never posted pics from the last trip. Maybe I'll find them tomorrow and post some.

Today's Profit: +$155 (EV +$257)
Today's Volume: 100 games
Month's Profit: +$178 (EV +$1147)
Month's Volume: 1216 games

Wow, it's been a long time since my last entry. I was away for a few days and then found it hard to get back into the grind given the months results. I know I shouldn't be so mentally weak but it gets tough sometimes. Still the volume is decent, 1500 games so far but I'm taking tomorrow off as I need time to sort out quite a few things.

I have been riding a Honda CBR600 F4 for while now on a learners license. I have to go to town tomorrow to book the drivers test. I have been delaying it because I don't want to use my bike because it's big and heavy and steers like a pig when it's not going 100 mph. Still I really love it and there is nothing like hearing that engine sing. I also have to fit a new chain and get some new tyres as well. I reckon that will set me back $500-700 or so. I'm planning on taking it in sometime this week.

I'm trying to scout out a new crib as well, probably somewhere on the Atlantic side of Cape Town. It's really beautiful on that side and I can run along the shore and beaches in the morning and the bars and clubs are pretty trendy. Unfortunately trendy comes with a price-tag.

I also have to get my squash racquet fixed. I smashed it on the wall about a month ago and I'm going to get that fixed so I can use it as a second racquet. Amongst other things I have washing and cleaning up to do, a bike to wash, I have AHK code that needs serious attention - I have so many ideas and so little skill! I also worked out how to do SQL queries of my HEM database, which is pure awesomeness. Since HEM is really terrible at helping out SNG players with calling ranges, shoving ranges etc. I have found a way to get at it through SQL. This will give me a major advantage over my opponents. So tomorrow I'm going to collate the SQL queries.

On the poker front, things are going really terribly still. I'm barely positive for the month at the $16s, although I have earned bonuses and the reload bonus. I have placed back-to-back in the BOTP now, although the previous one was obviously last month. I am still playing in the Battle at the moment. I won my first table and I am currently waiting for the rest of the tables to finish up. I hope I can continue to the final table this time. I am also playing in the $11 Sunday Storm right now. I have had very few opportunities to play hands, although this one just came up. Donk better is an idiot but still shows strength by leading strongly OOP. It sucks but I got to let it go...

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$10+$1

Stacks:
eNakamura (UTG) (3,030)
UTG+1 (4,455)
MP1 (1,800)
MP2 (5,115)
MP3 (1,860)
CO (5,345)
BTN (3,320)
SB (3,435)
BB (1,640)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-Flop: (150, 9 players) eNakamura is UTG Q:diamond: Q:heart:
eNakamura raises to 250, 2 folds, MP2 calls 250, 4 folds, BB calls 150

Flop: K:spade: 2:diamond: 3:spade: (800, 3 players)
BB bets 500, eNakamura folds, MP2 goes all-in 4,865, BB goes all-in 890

Turn: J:club: (7,055, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: 8:spade: (7,055, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 7,055
MP2 shows high card Ace
10:club: A:spade:
BB shows a pair of Kings
10:spade: K:heart:

BB wins 3,580 (net +1,940)

MP2 collects 3,475 (net -1,640)
eNakamura lost 250

Looks like I drew a pretty weak table for the Battle of the Planets. Most of the table is really tight-passive and there is only one players that looks quite decent. I'm second at the moment with 2100 chips, about 150 behind the table leader. I'm going to maintain good aggression and hope for the best.

The Sunday Storm isn't really going terribly well. I'm well behind average and haven't had any cards to re-steal and no one has called my raises with my good hands. I have around 4200 chips and the blinds will probably go up to 200/400 + 40 after the break .... I'm pretty desperate!

Edit: Meh, ended up getting crippled in the Sunday Storm when I called a shove with KK and lost to AJ and then busted out running AJ into AA.

Got a bit of raw deal card-wise in the Battle of the Planets. In the 28 hands after the break (and before the Q9o hand below), I got dealt no pocket pairs, one broadway (see QTo below), and zero suited connectors ... some cold streak. The best hands of the bunch were A2s in an EP and QT in the SB with two raisers. I finally shoved Q9o from the SB for 9.5BB and immediately after that JTo from the button for 11BB. It was a borderline shove, but ok given the structure of the tournament. I was called by A5o that spiked a 5 on the flop, I hit a J on the turn and he made trips on the river :(. Crippled with 5BB, I shoved 66 and ran into AQs and JJ! At least another $200 eases my pain a little.

Still on the Grind?

Not at the moment. I have been trying for a few days to get at calling and shoving ranges in my HEM database. I think this would be hugely beneficial and give me an extra edge at the tables. I tend to get completely carried away with these types of things. I have mostly been pretty frustrated with HEM and it's restrictive database. The information is there, but hugely inaccessible.

I made some headway learning how to add all players from certain time periods to an alias, which allows me to analyse them as if they were "Hero". Problems quickly start compounding though with stack overflow issues (out of memory), maxing out the CPU,very slow searches etc. Until I can get my hands on a new computer system, with a SS HDD, faster CPU and more memory, I think this information may remain elusive.

I have had an opportunity to learn SQL queries, which is interesting in itself. I have also been fiddling with some AHK and bashing my head against a wall mostly. I'm not a very skilled programmer and sometimes accomplishing the simplest things seem beyond me.

I tried to get some games in last night, but the games just seemed jam-packed with regs, so I decided not to play in the end. I'm not starting any games now since I'm waiting for a carpenter to come around and give a quote to hang some doors. I'll probably work on a bit of code while I wait.