the last session of 2009....

I couldn't come up with a more fitting result if I tried. I squeezed in 135 hands on a single table while surfing around and getting mentally ready to ring in 2010.

I won 0.06.

But I won .

Everybody have a safe party tonight, we'll see you on the other side....

2009 Review

Let's look a bit at my numbers for 2009:

Online SNGs: 433 tourneys played (very few in Nov/Dec as I've switched to the cash thing lately). $892 won, for an 11.27% ROI.

Online Cash: 15,921 hands (mostly 30 BB capped NL), $105 won, for a rate of 2.78 BB/100. If I remove my disastrous heads-up session with Mr. Pietzak last night, my BB/100 goes up to 3.24 BB/10 hands for the year. (yes, one bad run of 150 hands crushed my winrate). In all honesty, I'm using the 3.24 number to self-analyze - the headsup thing was just for fun with a friend, and I'm clearly not a headsup player. Remind me not to challenge Joe Cada to a game anytime soon.

Live Tourney: One big $800 score in the monthly neighborhood tourney, one 4th place finish in a live 20 man. I don't play tourneys live very often - we'll call this a success. I easily took in more than I spent.

Live Cash: I wish I kept better records for the weekly cash game (I suppose I could rip through all my blog posts here), I would probably guess I'm just about a break-even player, or slightly higher. I tend to play pretty nitty in the live game, with only occasional outbursts of LAGGY play (by occasional, I mean like once per 4 hour session).

Casino: $187 profit in late October in Wheeling WV. $483 profit in Mountaineer in February. Those were my only 2 trips this year. $670.

Add it all up, I'm hovering around 3 thousand bucks made in my hobby this year. Not quitting the day job anytime soon, for sure. But there aren't many hobbies that don't cost anything, and I've apparently found one of them. I have heard that anywhere for 7-10% of poker players can call themselves winning players, and by all accounts I am in that small percent, at least as a modest winner.

2010 Goals:

• Move to the "standard" 6-max cash game (no more cap).
• Visit Las Vegas (never been there, believe it or not).
• Play for one month on PokerStars (see if the VPP system would yield any significant "rakeback equivalent" as my stakes/volume).
• Get less nitty when playing live. Open it up. 3bet more, bluff-raise, don't be so worried about "getting stacked". Use that second/third buy-in in my pocket, if needed!
• Take as much money as possible from my nemesis, Mr. Pietzak, and buy him a steak dinner with his own money. (haha).

not a great ending to the night/month/year.

played Pietzak heads up for 150 hands - he thoroughly outlucked and outplayed me. Cracked my aces - had top pair/top kicker on my flush draw (which didn't come), hit top pair every time I had second pair.

Dropped $67 to him in 150 hands. A complete whitewash. He stacked me 3 times (for a $20 cap), I didn't stack him once.

Worst of all, it whacked my stats for the month from over 3.00 BB/100 to 1.7. That's not going to help me evaluate my game going forward.

Think I better stay away from headsup for awhile.

more testing - such frustration, I could scream.

Saw a $5 + .50 just starting up, with over 800 players. I jumped in.

Squeaky tight play. Barely even stole blinds. Won a few nice hands. Got the double up at the right time.

We got to the third break - I was in 32nd place. The bubble was at 90, there were 121 left. I had an above average stack. Time to get more aggressive.

I tried a blind steal with 9c5c. The small blind called me, a 38/0 clueless wonder. I was planning on c-betting any flop, but hell, I actually hit this one. Kd 9s 3d. Middle pair. He thinks a long time, which tells me no king. Then he checks. I bet, he calls. He's got a pot size bet left in his stack. I plan on putting him all in as long as a big card (making possible straights) or diamond doesn't come.

Turn is a two of spades. Bingo. He checks. Time to make him pay to draw. I put him all in.

He calls.... with ten-ten, and half my stack is gone.

I make it to the bubble, but barely further. KcQc in the big blind. An UTG player raises, and there's one caller. I don't have enough to push anyone out, so I plan on the old call-shove. I change my plan when the board comes K24 rainbow. I'm ahead of almost everything. I check, and someone bets all in. I call. He has AK. The river peps me up as it's a queen, but it also gives AK a one-card flush. Buh-bye to me, in 82nd place.

$3 profit.

I make one freaking aggressive play in the whole tourney, and it costs me. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong villain. He won't reraise all in preflop with tens (then I fold), he won't fold with a king overcard on the board. He's basically hoping and praying he can beat a bluff, and me the bluffing idiot comes wandering into his life at the perfect time.

I watch idiots overplay a dozen hands in a row, and everyone folds to the aggression. Raise, raise, raise. Finally someone calls. Pot-size flop bet, pot-size turn bet. Everyone runs away. Their chip stacks go up and up. The early leaderboard is scattered with aggro-tards who won't fold if a card higher than a jack is in their hand, and bet the pot whether they have a hand or not. I play squeaky tight 14/9 all tourney, then make one move and bang.

Sorry for the whining.

this game tests you

I felt pretty good about a 500 hand, $15 winning session this afternoon, then I fired up this evening and lost all of that in the first 9 hands to a LAGgo-tard from Belguim playing nearly 100% of the hands.

Belguim guy stacked me on a 2 outer on the river - QQ vs. 33. Knowing the poker gods were trying to test me, I kept playing.

3 hands later, I got a free play with 26 in the big blind and flopped a straight, 345. I was scared as hell putting it "all" (30 BB in the capped game) in there, knowing I could easily be counterfeited having the sucker end card, but I got it in, I got paid off by 88.

I then watched the 100% hand guy get his money in bad 5 more times, and suck out of 3 more of them. At this point, his stats were 86/32. He was willing to get all in on any pair, or any two face cards. He also had over $250 at the table.

2 hands later, AA. He limped, I raised. He called. The flop, an ominous 666. We both checked. Turn a Jack. I prayed he hit it and bet, he raised all in. If he had the fourth 6, I might have passed out, but he didn't. Jack-Five suited. I held up.

Belgium guy was showing his bluffs, showing off. 82o, K2o, didn't matter.

Saw him shove all in preflop, then show pocket twos after all folded. Did the same with pocket threes, but got a caller from AQ and lost a race.

I was fascinated, and down $2.35.

I started up another table. First hand, reraised a button stealer with AK, he folded. Second hand, reraised the same guy with KK, he shoved - with TT, and hit his ten on the turn. That's twice their 2 outers got me.

Seconds after losing the KK vs. TT hand, I stacked the Belgian guy at the other table with AK vs. A-rag.

Up, down, up down. KK loses to 7Ts. (that's three, right?) My baby flush stacks two pair two hands later.

Finally tally - 881 hands, up $14 on the evening session, and $44.50 for the day. 5.65 BB/100 hands - pretty decent. Plus the last of my December $100 bonus earned.

change o plans

well, I planned on getting in 500 or hands tonight, when Full Tilt decided GO DOWN. We're at about 2 hours downtime so far and counting.

So I fired up a SNG on my other site. Now I know why I don't like SNGs as much - the bad beats just tear you up, because they often mean you're out of the tourney.

I held QQ four times tonight while four handed. The first, the opponent had aces. Ok, not a bad beat, but the chance of someone having bullets when you have queens at a 4 handed table? Sick. The second was QQ vs AQ, he hit his ace. The third was QQ vs. AQ again - he hit his ace, then I hit my queen! Sick again.

Then, when heads up, I held QQ again, flopped a set, then turned FREAKING QUADS. There was a flush on the board, and of course full houses with the board paired, but I couldn't get a nibble, even on a third pot river bet. Phooey.

So all 4 QQ handed were improbable endings.

Took second in the SNG, not too shabby. The cash game started off badly, so I was down a few bucks there. I have some studying I need to do on the cash game - I'm not sure I'm happy with my results there.

We'll see if Full Tilt is back up tomorrow.

bleah

a quick, awful 203 hands this afternoon, where everything about it stank. The cards stank, the flops stank, my steals stank. I think I lost every showdown except one, and that was a chop where we both ended up playing a full house on the board.

Pietzak conned me into joining a knockout super turbo, which might be the most ridiculous form of poker I ever saw. 5 minute blinds and you start with 10 (300 chips). A total, unmitigated luck-fest.

I did double up by getting dealt AA - the guy on the other end with KK is probably not so happy right now. Then I doubled up again with AQ vs. some fool who called me with 85s. Then I had enough to make a standard raise with KQ, and someone shoved over me. I figured he probably had an ace, but he could just as easily have a pair or KJ and I figured I was probably flipping a coin vs. his whole range. Knowing you had to get lucky anyway, I flipped the coin, and he showed AT. He hit an ace on the flop that he really didn't need and gone I was in 27 hands.

I could have picked a random NFL game and bet against the spread and had the same chances that I did in that thing.

By lasting 27 hands, I actually finished in the top half.

Christmas Eve Poker

about 425 hands worth. A losing session, too - about 34 blinds worth. When your 4-1 preflop favorites get cracked, it's hard to win.

Christmas is a time to be thankful, of course, for family and friends. And I am, truly. What I'm also thankful for this year is the sense to realize how good I've got it. A healthy family, a good job, a loving wife who puts up with my butt day after day.

Not sure what I've done to deserve all that God has given me, but thank you. Truly.

Now, can we talk about those 4-1 favorites holding up just a bit more often...?

it took 185 hands....

..but I finally got the sucker. Calling station, 54/14, sitting directly to my left. Folds to blind steals only 29%. Folds to flop c-bets only 29%. His plays locks my aggro game down - can't raise the blinds with garbage, can't c-bet when I whiff. Well, I can, but he's calling with any pair and any draw.

Nope, I was going to have to hit a hand against this guy to beat him. Great.

I even got called a nit by someone at the table! He raised, and his stats were pretty loose, and his steal stats pretty light, so I reraised from the blind with JQo. He folded right away and typed into the chat "no way, nit". Ha! My stats were indeed pretty tight, but I had my reasons.

I was waiting to crack the calling station.

I would like to tell you I finally got the bullets or flopped the set, but those things never happened. Instead, someone else got most of the calling station's money, leaving him with $4.60. Afterwards, he 3bet raised (all-in) over twice since his stack was low - something he hadn't been doing before. He was defending these last 9 blinds like they were his mortgage - I knew he wasn't reloading.

To change my strategy, I actually open-limped on the button with JTo - no need to raise it and get reraised. No need to raise and get called. I hit an open-ender when KQ came, we checked around. When another queen came on the turn, he shoved the rest of his $4.10 stack into a $1.50 pot, with two people behind him. Looked like a queen, but I had eight outs to crack his trips. Not a great call by me, but I took a shot and lost. He had A6 - not even a queen - he was just praying me or the big blind didn't have one. (this means I had 14 outs instead of 8). I double him up, which leaves him at the table a bit longer.

Next orbit, I raise QJ, he shoves over me again. No need to push it, no need to get lucky - I just fold and move on. My time will come.

4 hands later, it comes. KcTc. No powerhouse, but I raise it from the cutoff. He calls from the button. The big blind calls too, for fun. Board comes Eight, Three, Ten. No flush possibilities.

A quick range analysis. He's been shoving light, so any overpair to tens is already all-in (unless he's playing them super-tricky). Ace-ten might be all-in also. Since he just called, I think I'm ahead of his range with my top pair, second kicker. He has no draw that can get there, unless he has exactly J9. Even if he has that, he has 8 outs, and I've got a 2-1 advantage.

Not sure what the big blind has, but this board is so dry, there isn't much for him to stick around with.

Calling station is not one to c-bet every time, so I need to bet it myself out of position. If he shoves, I'm calling. I bet $3 into a $4.50 pot. He just calls. I'm either way ahead of the crap he's calling with, or he flopped a set and I'm going to pay him off. Big blind folds, so it's just me and him.

The turn pairs the three. A 54/14 guy can call a preflop raise with a 3 in his hand, then call a c-bet with bottom pair. Actually this same guy did exactly that earlier in the session, with ace-three, then hit trips on the turn. The guy with the overpair was not pleased. A brief shudder goes over me as I recall that hand, but the pot is $10.75 and he's only got $6.90 left. I'm not folding now. I stick it in, and he calls, showing 6d8d. Second pair. Five outs to crack me. I'm a 9-1 favorite...

The river, a lovely and harmless ace of spades. No dice for the calling station, and I take down the $24.55 pot.

It took 185 hands, but I crack him. He leaves the table a split second before I do.

bounceback

Got half my losses back from last night - dropped down to my lower buy-in level and played 2-3 tables to get something rolling. 9.42 BB/100 is a nice night.

An interesting hand, well played by villain.

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
BTN: $13.79
SB: $21.47
BB: $13.33
Hero (UTG): $17.57
MP: $23.38
CO: $15.90

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $0.75, 3 folds, SB calls $0.65, BB calls $0.50

I've been tight/straightforward. Playing big cards with a few blind steals. SB isn't very good. BB is tight/solid as well.

Flop: ($2.25) 8 6 K (3 Players)
SB bets $0.25, BB raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $3.75

This donk minbet is the universal message for "I've got a little piece of this or a draw, please don't raise". BB ignores the plea and raises. He has hit this flop, and likes his hand. I like mine even better.

SB folds, BB folds.

SB folds right away. When BB thinks hard, I figure he's got 99/TT/JJ, or KQ/KJ. In the end he folds.

Results: $4 Pot ($0.20 Rake)

Hero showed A A and WON $3.80 (+$2.30 NET)

During the next hand, he chats "had a king there". I said "KQ"? and he replied yeah. Very nice play by him. He knows he's ahead of the donkey minbet, then has to shift gears and realize he's behind a tight UTG raiser behind him.

Some people (including me, sometimes), consider their hold'em hands in a binary way - either "good enough to go with" or "not". This guy was able to consider two separate ranges against two separate villains and make the correct play against both.

avert your eyes - a disaster is nigh.

Haven't had one of those trainwreck sessions in awhile - maybe that's one reason I have been feeling good about my game lately.

Tonight was the night. Stacked 4 times - maniac hits top set against my pair/shove (can't have it everytime, but he had it this time) - AK lost to QQ, flopped trips with K6 but outkicked, and ultra-limper raises for the first time, I decide to go with KJ anyway and stack myself against his aces.

The last hand was horrible, as was the king-six trips, probably - the river raiser couldn't have anything I beat, but I called anyway. The others were probably ok.

So some back luck and some bad play eat up half my modest profits on the month.

Some more bad news - Poker Tracker put out an update and it appears to have broken the HUD! Extra bad news for me, who relies on my stats so heavily. I have sent out a tech support query - I hope this gets fixed soon, or this poor night won't be the first.

Live Tourney Report - Dec 19

Monthly Live tourney tonight - 33 players witha $50 buy-in. I was defending my title from last month's improbable win.

I think I played nearly perfectly. I had one hand where I raised a limper with KQ early, she called me. The flop came JTx and I debated whether to c-bet when she checked. In the end I figured there was a big chance to take it down so I bet, but she called.

We then got to showdown and she had a pair of sevens, which she didn't hit until the turn (she had A7). A bizarre call by her - she even apologized for it, but whatev. I guess I could have checked the flop and taken a shot at hitting my draw, but I'm not going to fault making a solid c-bet at a pot against a weak-tight limper.

I terrorized the table as usual when I got down to 10 blinds or so. Twice I shoved all-in behind two limpers and won dead money (with 77 and A8s). As usual in this tourney, I was staying alive with aggressive high blind play. One big hand would get me to the final table.

An under the gun player put his last 1200 in with blinds at 200-400. I only had 1700 myself. A fairly large stack said "I'll call you", but he sounded a bit matter-of-fact about it, like maybe he wasn't strong but was just taking a shot. I looked down at king-queen, both hearts. I didn't think I could fold here, so I put my 1700 in too, and the bigger stack made the mandatory call.

A three way showdown - UTG only had jack-ten, and big stack had.... ten-three offsuit. I had the best hand, and one guy is dominated. Nice. Pokerstove says I'm 58% to win vs. two players - a fantastic result.

The flop was clear for me, but the turn brought a somewhat ridiculous three, and the river bricked. Big stack knocked two people out with T-3 off, while being dominated. Lovely.

My exit and Mr. JT left 10 players in the game, so they started moving to the final table as I got my coat. Out in 11th. Not a terrible finish, and I played well.

I would love to actually win some chips in the first two levels of this tourney (or God forbid get an early double up by flopping a set or something), but my usual play is to fold for two hours and then turn up the heat with 8-10 blinds or so. It works, but it's a frustrating, stressful way to play. I'm not as tight as my results suggest, either - I am willing to play quite a few hands during low blinds from the button and try and hit a monster, but there was nothing worth playing tonight. I still avoid Q6/J4 type hands, which can only lead to tough decisions and reverse-implied odds situations unless hitting an absolute crusher flop, but connectors, pairs of course, random broadway - I'm willing to play them in late position and I think I'm good enough to bail on one pair or in the face of trouble. This night, though - there were no situations like this to take advantage of.

Perceived Range

Thursday night cash game - a big turnout of 11 with several first time players.

Cards didn't come early. The table was ultra-limpy and my hands had no value, implied or otherwise. Punishing limpers would have been done as a straight bluff. I did try it once with KJ, whiffed the flop, then had my C-Bet checkraised by Mr. Pietzak.

In that past I would have been discouraged by a move like this that didn't work out, but I felt good about it. I played aggressively and got caught. Move on, keep playing your game.

Meanwhile, I got to see what these new cats were up to, and it was no good. And by this, I mean they were, for the most part, no good. One weaky-tighty who played 4 pots all night, then made a critical turn check with pocket kings and let the ace+plus+flush+draw catch his river ace. One limpy-never-raisy whose chips just shuffled around the table, away from him. Call, call, call, lose showdown. "Damn, why can't my hand hold up?". A third aggro-any-two that you couldn't put on a hand because a JJ5 board might be a full house, a K23 board might be two pair, and he was betting every time.

I knew how to beat each of these guys - I just needed the right situation to get it done, and the situations weren't coming.

When I was about $25 down and hadn't played a hand in 3 orbits, I decided it was time to make something happen on my own. Yet another limped pot on my button, I made the decision to raise just about anything playable and play it hard. Sounds great in theory until you look down at eight-five offsuit. Yeesh. I steeled my nerve and made it six bucks to go.

Mr. Pietzak obliges my raise and puts some more money in the pot. He's well ahead on the night and has been giving action with his typical oh-so-wide variety of holdings - it wasn't going to be easy narrow his range much here, but I was going to try.

We ponder a flop of 4-6-8. Top pair, gutshot for me. No flush possibilities. Mr. Pietzak looks at the board for a few seconds, which gives me time to do some range-narrowing. He likely doesn't have an overpair - he raises nines+ preflop, especially over limpers. His pause in reading the board is an indication that he might have low cards, and like me is counting up the straights in his head. Two broadway overcards don't have much to think about.

I take an extra second to choose my action. I know I'm going to bet here, but I have to decide what I'm going to do if I get raised. Time to "click up" in thinking one more time to 3rd level thinking - or "what does he think I have"? I've been watching StoxPoker videos this week whose theme is 3rd level thinking, or what the instructor perfectly tags "perceived range", so it's time to try and use what I've learned.

Mr. Pietzak pegs me as a mostly-tight player - playing big, straightforward cards. If I bet here, he can easily put me on whiffed ace-face, and reraise me as a test with a pair/gutshot type hand of his own - thinking he outflopped me unless I have a big pair.

My 5-8o holding is very different than my perceived range, and those situations are good ones to apply pressure. I decide that if he raises my c-bet, I'm going to push all in. I truly think I'm ahead by hitting my eight. I'm not sure my 5 is a good out for two pair, as it might complete straights for his baby-holdings, but I've got 4 outs of equity with my gutshot, and probably two more for my eight unless he has 68, 78 or 89. That would surely suck, as would falling into some tricky-slowplayed-trap that he's laying, but I've got two more buyins in my pocket, and at the least I would wake up this sleepy table by felting 58o here and give 'em something to talk about.

I bet. Pietzak asks me how much I have left - he's thinking hard about his equity and whether he can get me off ace-king. I almost hope he raises now - I've been sitting like a lump for the most part and it wouldn't hurt to stir up some action here. In the end, he folds with not enough to continue. I'm thinking he held an ace-four type of hand and bottom pair + overcard was close but just not quite close enough to put the screws to me.

I'm still wondering what it means if he calls with 79 or 89 and I lose. Is this hand a solid attempt at aggression in the right situation, with a well-reasoned line of thinking that just didn't work out for me, or is it a donkey going broke on top-pair-no-kicker with five-friggin-eight? It's a thin line.

Of the three new players, I end up making my money back on Mr. limpy-never-raisy. Again with 5-8, this time in the big blind, and this time both clubs. Ace-Six-Nine is the board this time in a limped pot, and two clubs to give me a legitimate draw. Mr Pietzak bets small from the small blind - Raising is probably the best option here with a flush draw plus a gutshot, but I decline the best option and call instead, hoping to hit my outs. Mr. limpy-never-raisy calls as well. This worries me a little - he might have the same, but higher flush draw as I do now.

The turn brings a second ace and Pietzak bets again, $3 into a $8 pot. I've got him on second pair or trip aces with a kicker he's not thrilled with in this limped pot, so all my outs should overtake him. I call again and so does limpy. If I hit my flush and he raises, I have to seriously consider folding.

The flush comes on the river - the 2 of clubs. Mr. Pietzak checks - no strong hand for him. I have to get value from trip aces and various "two pair" hands (counting the two aces on the board). At the last moment, I reason that this player probably won't raise me even with the nut flush on this paired-ace board. He'll worry about a full house and just call. (in fact, I think I've seen him raise exactly one time all night). Based on this, I feel that I need to bet on the bigger side - to get max value when I'm ahead, and with less of a chance of having to make a tough river decision upon a raise. I make it $11 into a $17 pot and as expected he calls, then shows ace-six. My flush takes the pot.

Top pair for the limper, then trips on the turn - no raise anywhere. He could have raised ace-six in late position preflop, or on the flop with top pair, or the turn with trips, but failed to do so three times. He keeps me in and I catch him for a nice takedown. Thank goodness for that.

Total night's profit - 50 big blinds - and just enough to pay for me tourney buy-in this weekend.

How my new HUD made me some money today

The screenshot shows my new popup Preflop HUD, which breaks down an opponent's tendencies from early, middle, and late positions, as well as from the blinds. Do you see anything odd about this opponent? He is raising more from early position than he is in late position! I have about 450 hands played with this particular villain, so there is something definitely fishy going on and not just a small sample size.

After noticing this fact in my HUD, I decided to watch his raising tendencies. Specifically, it appears that he likes to raise under the gun. Since it's not profitable to raise so frequently from this position, I came up with a theory that this particular villain feels that UTG raises get more respect than they should, so he should be able to steal more frequently from that position.

Sadly for him, he was sitting to my left tonight, meaning that I was the big blind while he was under the gun. I restole 3 preflop raises from him by reraising his UTG raises - he folded each time.

Looks like I'm onto this gentleman's little game.

Light 3-Bet, shove flop.

Started playing tonight, but just wasn't feeling it, so I quit after 33 hands and a profit of 0.25.

I did listen to a video in the car today during the commute, so I can't say I've been totally avoiding the game.

One thing I forgot about a session I played a few nights ago: I attempted some light three betting, to good effect. Here's a sample hand:

Full Tilt, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
UTG: $20
CO: $48.45
BTN: $22
SB: $28.65
Hero (BB): $28.60

Pre-Flop: 9 6 dealt to Hero (BB)
3 folds, SB raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.50, SB calls $3

BTN is stealing at 33%: fairly high. I three bet (very) light with a garbage hand. He calls.

Flop: ($9) 3 7 8 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $10.50, SB folds

Ed Miller says that when 3-betting light from the blinds as a defense, if you so much as "graze" the flop (even like pair + gutshot for 6 outs), you have a high equity play by shoving. The fold equity plus the 25%+ or so equity if called often makes this a winning play. Here, I flop an open-ended straight draw - even better than the 6 outs suggested, so in it goes. Add to this the fold equity of an all-low flop that misses many of the typical blind stealing hands, and boom, 9 blinds won with a garbage hand.

Results: $9 Pot ($0.45 Rake)
Hero showed 9 6 and WON $8.55 (+$4.55 NET)

This play worked so well, I tried it again a few orbits later against the same villain.

Full Tilt, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
BB: $20
UTG: $26.05
MP: $43.85
CO: $25.30
BTN: $27.05
Hero (SB): $30.40

Pre-Flop: A 2 dealt to Hero (SB)
3 folds, BTN raises to $1.75, Hero raises to $5, BB folds, BTN calls $3.25

This time I actually have an ace when I three bet, but a garbage kicker. Again he calls.

Flop: ($10.50) J T A (2 Players)
Hero bets $10, BTN folds

This is a messy flop for Ace-no-kicker, but I'm ahead of the top 30% of hands at about a 55-45 clip, plus there's always some fold equity. The other reason I like the shove here is because I've made the same play I made before, and he may be inclined to play sheriff against me with a jack or ten, in which case he's drawing very thin.

Another point - this shove also works because aces lower than ace-ten give me extra outs for a chop. If the board pairs the ten or jack, or whatever the turn card is, or comes any other card higher than his kicker, I would chop the pot with A4-A9 (as long as he doesn't hit his two-pair).

Pokerstove says I will chop this pot 24% of the time against any ace in the villain's hand.

Add up all the chops, plus the fold equity, plus being slightly ahead of his stealing range to begin with, and boom, easy shove. In this particular hand, another great result - 10 big blinds with ace-friggin-deuce.

Results: $10.50 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed A 2 and WON $10 (+$5.25 NET)

I feel like I'm learning the game at an exponential rate compared to when I was playing sit-n-goes. Plays like this aren't necessary (or even correct) when playing a short stacked tourney. But in the cash-games, I am quickly finding out that they can be the difference between long term winning and losing.

Everyone is going to get pocket aces and kings the same number of times in the long run. Everyone is going to flop the same number of sets, and win with AK vs. AQ about the same number of times.

But winning decent pots with ace-deuce, and six-nine off, while at the same time avoiding losing big pots with the same hands - that's what winning players accomplish, and losing players do not.

slowed down a bit

As promised, my pace slowed down this week due to some life stuff (kids holiday concerts), and just the need to take a little break.

This morning, I decided to work some more on my HUD. I had never really worked on the HUD popup (and I almost never use it), but I saw an interest popup in a video, so I replicated it. I also reworked some of the main HUD, and now have a bit of a different look at my players.

To try everything out, I played 500 hands of the .25/50 capped game, and left a modest winner. It was a strange table set that I played - the guys in my blinds were playing a ton of hands and defending over and over, so I cut down my stealing and went for more of a value game against them. I had my friend Mr Play Every hand at one table (he's down to playing only 84% of hands now), but I couldn't get in the right situation to take his money. I also didn't hit many big hands, so the fact that I was positive at all was a good thing.

I'll show off my new HUD in more detail in a future post.

handreading - brilliant or idiot-savant, but it worked out.

Full Tilt, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter
BB: $88.40
UTG: $18.50
MP: $48.40
CO: $76.65
Hero (BTN): $45.25
SB: $71.20

Pre-Flop: 6 A dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, SB folds, BB calls $1

Standard steal raise with a suited ace. Villain liked to defend with a wide range, and preflop stats were 39/24/13. Very aggro.

Flop: ($3.25) 2 7 8 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks

When he checks flop, I'm a bit nervous. Does he have a big hand or a big draw? With his aggression, I would have thought he would lead on this flop with anything, and willing to get it in with a draw.

Turn: ($3.25) A (2 Players)

BB bets $3, Hero calls $3

Now he bets pot on the ace. I have seen him bet pot as a "push" bet, and his "pull" bet is half pot. He could have defended with an ace, sure, but I think he's representing it instead. I call for pot control - my kicker sucks.

River: ($9.25) J (2 Players)

BB bets $10.50, Hero calls $10.50

He's all in now because of the cap. Draws got there, but I think he plays these aggressively beforehand. Ace-bigger kicker is possible, and a slowplayed set on the flop, too. My spider sense is tingling, and I just can't put him on a coherent hand. In the end, his aggression and "stickiness" in pots causes me to look him up.

Results: $30.25 Pot ($1.50 Rake)

BB showed J T and LOST (-$14.50 NET)
Hero showed 6 A and WON $28.75 (+$13.75 NET)

Not sure if this was a brilliant call or if I got lucky, but it worked for me.

vacation is over

I played 3762 online cash game hands (all capped, either .10/.25 or .25/.50), and won a total of.....

$17.35. Yeeesh. 0.90/hour.

We can add to that the $72 I won in the only SNG I played, and the $800 I won in the live tourney, and take away the $27 I lost in the live Thursday game, and it looks like was a profitable week. $862.35 earned playing poker on my vacation. Works for me.

Got some real life stuff coming up this week - kids Christmas concerts, and back into the job grind, so I'm guessing my online play will be low this week.

WIDTIMGT: Nothing really. Played only 200 hands tonight, didn't do any reading or watching videos. I continued on my uber-tight play in UTG and UTG+1. I folded ATs and 55.

Small losing session today - ran into pocket aces twice - not much you can do there. Played fine.

WIDTIMGT: I folded KQo, KJ and AJ under the gun (at a six max table). I am also going to open-fold pocket pairs 22-66 under the gun. Thinking about AQ also.

Did a bit more studying of KJ - turns out I win all money on this hand in position, and lose it all out of position. Go figure.

AQ is still an anomaly - losing from everywhere. In a capped, 6 max game, this is odd. I'm calling it small sample size right now.

WIDTIMGT

Introducing a new segment here on the blog - "What I did to Improve my game today", or WIDTIMGT for short.

Two Ground Rules

1. I can't cop out and say "I played poker". If I did indeed play, then I need to find something new in the game that I tried out, or worked on, and document it.

2. Posting to this blog, in and of itself, doesn't count. If the post is reviewing hands from a live game, or working out an equity calculation, then of course that is working on my game (and the blog is just documentation thereof). But whining about all my bad beats or discussing how I three-outed some poor sap in this space isn't working on my game, so it doesn't count.

WIDTIMGT

Today, I watched a StoxPoker video of Matt Bolt 2-tabling 50NL. I also read through the bubble section of the book shown below.

From Holdem Notebook

Thin Value = bluff

I'm certainly not very good at it yet, but I feel like I'm starting to think through hands the right way as they play out. As Professional No Limit Hold'Em would say: "REM: range, equity, maximize". That is, put your opponent on a range of hands, determine your equity against that range, then choose the course of action to maximize that equity.

The hard part for the learning player is putting opponents on ranges of hands. Sometimes I get their hand exactly right. When FA raises up a limper to $3 in our .50/$1 game, I know he has a big hand. (last night he did this, he had aces). When Tony looks at a 567 rainbow flop, checks from the blind, then thinks long and hard about calling a bet, I'm able to put him on pocket threes or fours pretty quickly. (pocket eights or nines might have garnered a raise preflop to a bunch of limpers, and wouldn't take as long to consider his actions with an overpair). When I raise up pocket eights and Tony comes over the top for his only three bet of the night, I reason that at best I'm up against ace-king here, and more likely a bigger pair - especially due to my tight play for the past 2 hours. I fold and he flashes pocket kings.

These times are rare - once or twice a night, maybe, but several more times I'm getting closer with ranges like "well, he's got a random king with a kicker he's not thrilled with, or some sort of second pair, or a flush draw". And then, lo and behold, we get to showdown and his hand fits into there somewhere!

I wasn't able to use this information to make much money last night for myself. I had a few second-pair-ace-kicker type hands (like ace-seven from the blinds on a board of king-seven-rag), where I was trying to get value from other sevens, but instead value-towned myself to someone holding king-jack or king-ten.

My night basically came down to two hands where a checked flop was enough to open the dyke of a runner-runner loss. In one hand, I called a standard raise with ace-jack in the blinds, and hit a sweet looking KJJ flop. I checked as did everyone else. The turn brought a second club, so I bet, and a straightforward player called me. I had him on a king or the flushdraw. The river brought the flush - I made a small bet anyway, and the villain called with his small flush (thankfully, he didn't raise). He's nowhere near the river if I bet the flop, but would you really bet the flop if you could see his cards and see the only way he could beat you would be to runner-runner clubs?

In the second hand, Tony set up a straddle for the first and only time of the evening. A couple people paid the $2 to see a flop, but I woke up with Big Chick - ace-queen of diamonds, and tried to chase them all away. Tony defended his straddle.

I hit my ace and went for a checkraise, out of position, but Tony didn't bite. The turn was making the board a bit too broadway and clubby for my tastes, so I lead out and Tony called. The river brought all kinds of bad news - a third club and more high-card-ness, but again I felt like there was thin value to be had with AQ (probably very thin), so I bet the same 7.50 that I did on the turn. Tony had runner-runnered into a straight.

Another common thread between these two hands was being out of position, something in which I found myself much of the night. I'm pretty good about folding my small blind, but this night there were enticing hands like suited kings for flushes and pseudo-connectors like eight-ten-o-diamonds, beckoning me into the hand like Charybdis luring me towards the rocky shore. My button hands were pretty lousy overall - I punished the limpers a couple times with hands I would have formerly either limped along or folded - this move has worked nearly to perfection in the weeks that I've used it. The effect of this move is less POSTflop hands in position, because I'm often chasing people away preflop. This isn't a bad thing, per-se - winning 3 big blinds with ace-eight-offsuit works just fine, thanks for asking, but I found my postflop game, at least last night, was often happening as first to act with several behind.

Final tally on the night was $27 in the hole. I'm hovering at even if my trip jacks or my Aces-queen kicker win a small pot, or if someone calls my only pocket aces of the night (everyone folded, fooey), so as always, the line between a plus and minus night is often just a hand or two.

Some self-study

I played 340 hands today and then I could feel my luck turning. One mechanical mistake (3 betting the tightest player at a table with Q6o, whoopsie), and one failed bluff (busted straight draw, bet because he checked an ace on the turn, he checked b/c it gave him two pair. Whoopsie again).

So that was a quick $6 and about a third of my "profit" on the day (lol at these microstakes and .10/.25 blinds), so I just closed my three tables and quit for the afternoon.

Still a fine session in terms of BB/100 - over 8.0, and about 6.0 for the vacation this week.

One more thing on stake - my bankroll will allow me to play the .25/.50 game, but I'm somehow not too comfortable there. Maybe I've just had poor table selection, but it seems like a pretty decent jump in skill level. Just about every .10/.25 table features a couple "limp-with-almost-half-my-hands" droolers, I can work my way around and through these guys, but the .25/.50 game seems like 5 out of the 6 on each table are very aggro, and cbetting, and good.

I'll keep popping up on those tables, though - making $50/month playing poker at the micros isn't doing the roll much good.

I also did some self-study on holecards - it turns out that my two biggest losing hands are... wait for it... AQ and KJ! You probably could have guessed that. I was figuring that in this capped game, a "top pair and run" type game, these cards are playable in all positions at a 6-max table. It looks like, uh, no - they still fall into the category of "trouble hands".

So in today's session, I made an adjustment to my game. KJo, AQo, AJo - into the muck in the first two positions (unless there are some extra circumstances like a tight table or super tight players behind me that would have position on me after the flop). I might/might not play them suited. KQ is still a go, though- I think folding KQ on a six handed table is too nitty.

My rationalization for this is that I am playing way more hands in position now - raising up medium aces and random broadways (like the above) to limpers in front of me, so I should take other hands out of play in earlier positions to balance out. Taking the "trouble hands" out should add a few notches to my winrate.

A long lost friend, returned

I was soooo happy tonight when I sat down at my first table to see someone with whom I had played before. Mr. Play Every Hand. That is almost not an exaggeration, as you can see from the screenshot. As you can see by my HUD, he has played 96% of the 112 hands in which we have sat together. The bottom row shows that he wins at showdown roughly one quarter of the time, meaning that three quarters of the time, he loses.

When people tell you that poker is all about table selection, believe them. Search for players like this, seek them out, and sit with them.

My session with my friend went so-so. I got tangled up with him 46 times, winning 16 and losing 30. That sounds bad, but my wins were greater than my losses, and my net against him was -3.75. He stacked me twice - once by limp/calling with ace-king and me having ace-queen, and us both hitting our ace. The other was me in the blind with Q9 on a 55945 board. Yup, he had the case 5. Evil. Other than those 2, he never won more that 1.50 against me. I on the other hand, won more than 1.50 10 different times from him.

Other than messing with this guy, my session was an exercise in redemption. I got stacked again and again in the beginning, sometimes by playing like a donkey, other times with "can't get away" hands like the boat vs. quads hand above. The last time was definitely helped by tilt-assist. I raised KQ from the button and got called from a blind. The board was QJJ and I just couldn't, wouldn't believe these suckers outflopped me again my hitting a jack. He did. When he shoved the turn, one quick look at his stats would have screamed FOLD IDIOT to me (his aggression was 0.5) - but I wasn't looking at his stats. I just turned into a non-believer for this one hand, and moved all in despite all the evidence in front of me that I was crushed. Whoopsie.

Fortunately, I knew I was tilting, and calmed myself down. I went into lockdown mode - tightened way up, and waited for some hands. Thanks be the poker gods, the hands came. I went on a heater, and won back the loot I had lost, plus just a tiny bit of profit. After popping above the water line, I had to go attend to a matter on the daughter's PC, so I shut down the Full Tilt client and left the night with an unspectacular, but satisfying profit. My last session rollercoaster can be seen in the image below.