50 Troubles but good learning

Well, I had a good sweat session with Juggernaught last night. I learned a ton of little points in a variety of spots. But unfortunately my crappy run at 50 is still going strong. It's getting pretty bad at this point. At this point I am thinking I will have to set a 25 win amount for each month, and then after I reach X amount I will play the rest of the month at 25 getting 2 buy in shots to lose at 50. And I know that's a defeatest attitude. I just don't care today. When you lose 6 buy ins in 2K hands, run 3 under EV, run KK into AA from an aggro monkey squeezing you, run a set into a fish trapping with AA only to turn top set, set into quads, 2 pair into a straight in a limped pot and have a 600 hand session where you win 1 pot where you got more than a C-bet in, a defeatest attitude is bound to follow.

This would have been far and away my best month ever, but 50 shots have basically turned what should have been a great month into meh. So, I am putting some ice on my nuts, and getting ready for my last 2 buy in shot. If this fails, then I'll be doing 1K at 25NL per month and anything over that will be shot taking.

Bet Sizing

Well, last night was one of those nights where I really wasn't into playing. So of course I fired up a couple of 50NL tables to take a shot and 4-6 25 tables to make some money. 50 didn't go so well, mostly because I double barreled a hand and lost a flip, but I wound up making 5 bucks or so.

25 was crazy good though. Made about 65 there. I basically avoided all pots where I wasn't willing to play a big pot or I wasn't driving the action. Worked out pretty well. I definately need to spend some time reviewing some of the thin value spots where I'm not driving the action. Might be a leak there.

Anyway, I have long been a proponent of smaller bet sizes. The basic thought process was I have the better starting range and post flop skills, so making smaller bets to take chunks out of the villan is better. I have been moving away from this, starting to put in bigger bets in a lot of spots, double barreling instead of going for the check back river bet, and really pushing with bigger raises post flop. I'm seeing more folds than I am used to overall, but I am also winning bigger pots and experiencing less variance. It also has the effect of forcing me out of my particular brand of tilt.

Last night also put me back on pace for a 1K month. It's still hard to believe how much poker has come together over the last couple of months. Going to be experimenting with some set ups over the weekend, but I'm thinking of running 8-10 tables on tilt till I get my iron man points and then running 24 at stars. It'll probably run around $150 to get that all set up, but I can do a couple week trial run for around 10 bucks. I've been wanting to get some volume on both sites anyway, as I think getting the bonus money on both sites is more optimal than grinding extra hands at one site in spots where I'm not making bonus money.

Luck Boxing it

It felt good to be the one sucking out last night. I had a couple of major suck outs. One I flopped top pair, flush draw, and back door straight in a 4 way pot and an overly aggressive reg leads into me on a 4 way pot. I go ahead and raise to fold out the AK portion of his range, and have to call it off. He showed a set, but I binked the turn. Next I flopped a pair and FD on a mono board 3 handed against an overly aggressive half stacked fish. He goes for the XR for half his stack. Tables the flopped flush, but I bink the turn. I don't really mind either play as I just ran into the top of the villans ranges (although in the first hand the villans range might be only sets - not sure about that). It felt good to run hot.

Overall I was 3 buy ins over EV in 900 hands, and I booked another 4 buy in session. Still 7 buy ins under EV for the month though.

Also had a pretty funny happenning on 2P2 yesterday. Someone posted a hand I played pretty poorly. Kind of embarassed to see it. I don't hate the way I played it just because my value range in that spot was 6 combo's of AK, but the way he played it that is pretty much the only hand in his range.

Anyway, after going through a 12K tilt section of the month, I am back to my winning ways. I am altering the foundation of my post flop betting so everything seems new to me. I seem to be winning pots that are a little bit larger overall. I am seeing more folds, but I am also seeing less suck outs. Overall I think it will help my win rate, plus it gives me more options. I think it will also help me avoid FPS/trapping.

Long time gone

Well, it's been a long time since I have been blogging, and a lot has changed since then.

I moved from rush to regular tables after getting frustrated with the high variance and overall nitty play. Turns out that was a great move. I am now making a lot more money with a lot less variance. I think I got lost in the world of bonus money and forgot about the overall goal of making money.

I also started working with a coach (El Nino) which has been really good for me. I've been taking 50NL shots. They haven't gone to well, but that has more to do with runbad than bad play (although both contributed to it). Hoping to take another shot this week with Nino sweating me.

Anyway, these last 3 months have gone really well poker wise. My last two months were my best ever, and unless the bottom drops out, this will be even an even better month, despite being $250 below EV. I also think I have found my particular version of Tilt. Turns out when I get tilted I start to trap instead of going for value.

Back in the saddle

Well, the last couple of sessions have been pretty good. I won a little over 2 buy ins in each, and am feeling better. I had developed a MUBS mentality that had cost me a little bit, as I didn't go for stacks against a couple of NITs. Of course, they both showed up with AK on an Axx board and decided to play a big pot when I had bottom set. It feels so much better playing now that I am making progress. I was worried that I would have to cheat on my prop bet by playing 10NL to pad the win rate the way things were going, but unless I get another train wreck, that shouldn't be an issue.

I am almost on track for my prop bet this month, with just under 19,000 hands played. It's good to not feel the pressure to get more hands in, but I will probably try to get this mostly complete this week so I don't stress at the end of the month. I am also thinking about getting back into rush, just because I can get more hands in and make those quality hands. Still not sure though, as it is so nice to always have a target at the table.

Downswing reset

Well, This week has been a nightmare for me. I went from having a really good start tot he month back to even in 3 sessions. Right now I am up less than half a buy in, and still behind on my prob bet. It has been a painful process, but hopefully I will get through it. This would be a really bad time to have a breakeven month.

On the plus side, I did get a $50 bonus and I should make some extra money from my hands prop bet (that I am behind on), so that will help with the profit line for this month. Hoping to get in a few good sessions this weekend as the tables are always really soft. If anything can end my run bad, extra soft tables should be it.

Knockin on wood.

Weekend up date

Well, I didn't get in as many hands as I wanted this weekend. Friday I played a really short session, but wound up winning half a buy in through 130 hands. It was one of those great stretches where you make every right decision. I never won more than a couple of bucks on any one hand, but it was a lot of fun.

Saturday started out like gangbusters. I really thought it was going to be my best session every, but alas the poker gods decided to flip the doom switch. I was up 3 and a half buy ins and I get all in pre-flop with AA vs. KK. K on the flop, for 150BB's. No big deal, I came back and was looking at a 4 buy in day when aggro tards kept hitting monsters. In the span of 200 hands I was down a buy in. It was really frustrating to loose that much against really bad players in such a short time, but I gutted it out till I was up and shut it down.

Still behind on my prob bet for hands this month because I passed out last night, but I did catch up a bit. Hoping to get caught up this week.

Roller Coaster

Well, I finally got around to doing a larger session last night. I was pretty tired going into the session, so I decided to nit it up and avoid marginal spots. I was very excited early, when I got paid off on sets twice in the first 50 hands and was up $40. All was going well, then I got top two cracked 4 ways, KK cracked by QT on the river, and ran TT into QQ against someone with a 100% 3 bet over 20 hands. Suddenly my really good start was a long, break even session. But alas, it seems that the poker gods were just messing with me. I wound up winning 3 and a half buy ins and doing a couple of really funny plays. First I got 3 bet by a nit tag holding AA. I decide to flat OOP because I want his stack and his hand is pretty well defined as a big pocket pair. The flop is a beautiful TT8, so I check min raise. I get called and the turn is a 7. I think about leading, but then I decide to check shove. Villan calls and turns up JJ, and I scoop a nice pot.

The other funny hand was AA again. There was a 48/30 with a small 3 bet %. I decide to go for a limp reraise as I was in EP and there were a few aggressive players behind me, but none with a big sample. As expected he iso raises me and I reraise him. He 4 bets me and I do a little jump of joy! I click it back and he flats. Flop is QJx and I put him all in. I was suprised when he showed up with KK, but was more than happy to take his stack.

As for the update, I have 5000 hands in and am up just over 5 buy ins. I'm still beihnd the pace I need, but not that far anymore. I'm feeling pretty confident about this month. I think I will win the prop bet, I got a $50 bonus from tilt that should cover the rakeback hit for my CR subscription, which should be a nice bit of padding to the bankroll.

Roller Coaster

The last couple of days have been interesting. Wnesday I started off well, going up a little over a buy in early, but then dropped 4 buy ins. I won some more, but wound up down 2 buy ins. It was a little tough as it dropped my bank roll lower than it has been in months, and was certainly not how I wanted to start the month when I have the 31K hand challenge going on. Last night started out the same. I would go up a little, then loose it to a nit slow playing AA/KK while I had JJ/QQ. But then I took a bathroom break, and BAM! up 3 buy ins. I was going to go for 1500 hands a session, but I think I will drop that to 1250 and add in a few extra hands on good nights/when I have some extra time (Yeah, I know that's funny). Still, it's good motivation to stay on point and not mess around trying to find other area's of profitability while (hopefully) adding a little extra income for the month.

August Wrap

Well, after a long frustrating month, I actually wound up having a good month overall. I didn't quite meet my goals of $500 and a shot at 50, but no worries.

$230 in winnings.
$115 in rakeback.
$75 in iron man bonus.

$420, or around $8 an hour. I was $100 under EV, so I made my money goals with slansky bucks!

I looked over my sessions last night. I had two sessions where I lost $50, and one session where I lost $150 (and I was actually over EV!). That $150 is what really killed me. At the time I thought I was playing OK, but just looking at the raw numbers, I know I wasn't. I am thinking that from now on I will put in a 2 buy in stop loss next month, as this is two months in a row where 1 or 2 sessions have really killed my month. I mean, if you look at it, I am a winning player, so while I expect to have some outliers both high and low, the high's should be higher than the lows. Instead I have a 6 buy in loss as my worst session, and 2 3 and a half buy ins as my best. Time to put a reign in on that ego. So, for this month I will stop after dropping 2 buy ins and move down to finish up my iron man.

My goal for next month is to get the highest iron man level, win my 31K hand challenge, and make $500 in profit.

Getting ready for the end of the month

Well, the end of the month has been good to me. The weekend was pretty much a wash. I didn't play Friday or Saturday so I could get in some good family time and celebrate my Fiance's B-day, and by the time I got to my Sunday session I was to tired to think. I dropped down to 10NL and wound up winning a buy in. It was actually kind of fun, as I was monkeying around with some things.

Last night was another good session. I wound up winning just over 2 buy ins and playing some very good poker. I missed a couple of folds and a couple of value bets, but overall it was one of my better session. I played a couple of hundred hands more than I normally do, as I am in a prop bet next month for 31K hands. It shouldn't take more time than I play now, but I will have to be more disciplined next month. No more taking an hour to play tourneys or mess with PLO. Still, it's good for disipline. I decided that since I am going for a little more volume, I will try for the iron bonus this month as well. I'm not overly concerned about it, but might as well get that extra $25 bucks!

Finally some run good!

Well, the last couple of days have been pretty good for me. I know from my posts it probably sounds like I always run bad, but you have to recognize the run good to or go insane.

Yesterday was an meh session as far as my actaul winnings go, but a really good moral boost. It started out pretty solid as I was up a buy in and a half on a couple of really good river calls, but then it went down hill. I wound up paying off 3 sets. I could have gotten away from 2 of them, but I didn't, and Bam, down 2 buy ins. This put my in full blown FU mode, but not the tilt monkey pay off version. I wound up really tightening it down and finished the session up half a buy in. It felt like a major victory coming out a winner when you get stacked 3 times in 1000 hands and still come out up, especially when you don't stack anyone.

Last night, however, was a dream. I played out of my mind good in value town. I did spew some in calling some bets (I finished the session with a went to show down of 28%), but I was getting so much value with my winners it didn't matter. I'm not talking about big pots, I don't think I won more than half a stack in any one hand, but I'm talking about getting 8 or 10BB's when an aggro player limps pre-flop and you hit a K with your K2 in the BB or getting 3 bets out of TT against a tag BVB. I wound up winning 3 and a half buy ins, and I know it could have been better! I am still working on the whole 3 betting thing, both reacting to it and using it.

Small session

I played a short session last night of around 600 hands. I actually played pretty tight for me, running 12/10 with a 4% 3 bet. I never played a big pot, made a couple of small bluffs in spots against TAG's who C-bet to much, and overall had a solid session. I wound up winning a little over a buy in and was never in a bad spot. The only bad stat was my river call efficiency, which was 0. On the other hand, I only made 1 river call, and that was a stupid call. I don't mind the turn call, but the river call was just bad.

I am still looking for ways to increase my 3 bet percentage. I need to increase my resteal amounts, but with my table selection 3 betting for value is often bad. Still, I have doubled the amount I 3 bet over the last couple of months, so that's been good.

The one thing I did try last night was increasing my steal to 4x most of the time (I used 3x or even MR'd in a few situations where I wanted a call or to induce a 3 bet) and my success rate was almost 90%! First off, the increase win rate was awsome. But this also covers one of my weaknesses. Stealing 30% isn't all that great if you don't C-bet enough. And frankly, I don't, especially in steal situations. So, all of the sudden I am taking down the pot Pre-flop a lot more and avoiding one of my leaks. If this continues to work anywhere close to as well as it did last night, I will be a happy man!

Soul Crushed

Well, I finally got around to trying out the Tilt shallow tables last night. Holy Fish farm Batman! The tables were so rediculously soft. There wasn't a single reg with a 3 bet percent over 2 (well, outside of me that is) and I haven't seen tables this fishy since 5NL. I think the reason is the small number of tables (only 6 last night and 2 cap tables). There just aren't enough tables for regs to want to play them.

This should give you an example of how soft the tables were. Of my AA/KK hands, I ran into 3 sets heads up, two flopped flushes when I had a redraw, and 2 straights, I tilted off a buy in and a half at the end of my session, and even with all that (and much worse) I still finished the session up half a buy in!

Which brings me to the whine portion of the post. I have been trying to explain to my fiance just how bad I have been running over these last 50K hands. At this point, I would have to win 20 some odd coin flips IN A ROW just to get to even. Since my review with Mpethy I have been 4 buy ins below EV. Mind you, this is a trend for 18 months now, although I don't have the stats (nor do I want to see them) for the first 16 months. At this point I actually expect to run below EV just about every session. While I don't expect the villans to hit more than they should, I pretty much know that I will miss every draw when I get it in behind. And you know what? If I could be playing right now, I would. I still love the game of poker. I still think I can be a pro. The frustration is massive, but maybe I am just a masochist.

Table selection

I have been talking a lot about table selection lately. I believe it is one of the strong points of my game, and I believe after ABC poker and bank roll management, it is the most important skill. However, many micro players think you should look for the toughest compatition. After all, the point of playing in the Micro's is to learn and get better, not make money right?

I will agree that you will improve more playing against better players, and you make more money table selecting. So, by this line of reasoning, you should look for the toughest tables and get better! And if we were talking about 1 session, then that would be the end of the debate. But poker is a long term game. Many grinders play literally hundereds of thousands of hands a month, so a few hundered hands at a tough table is a fairly insignificant sample. But lets look at some examples.

Player A chooses to play the toughest tables, but is a small winner. Say 1bb/100, which I would think is a pretty damn good win rate if you are looking for the best players at your level.


Player B chooses the softest tables they can find. This player wins at a rate of 5bb/100 (this is my slansky bucks over the last 50K hands). They table select for 3 fish and good position, but still play with good players.

Over the first 50K hands player A improves more than player B. Using the 20 buy in rule for taking shots, player A is now 20% of the way to moving up. Player B is now taking shots. Suppose it takes Player B 50K hands to get a foot hold on the new level. At this point player A is 40% of the way to taking shots at the next level, while player B is now comfortable at the new level. Player B is still table selecting, but as the play level is better, is now learning at the same rate (and has been for the last 50K hands) as player A. Player B's win rate has been cut in half, so they are now winning at 2.5bb/100.

Player A keeps grinding it out, and over the next 100K hands is now 80% of the way to taking a shot at the next level. Plpayer B has won enough to take a shot at the next level. At this point Player B is now playing better competition and is learning faster.

And that is why it is important to table select.

Weekend update

Well, this was an interesting weekend. Let's start with the good news. I did my stat review from Mpethy this weekend. We got started late because I had computer problems. He was very understanding and professional. He even stayed on longer than 2 hours, and seemed content to continue even longer, but I had to cut it off for family issues. I was rather amused when the first thing he said seeing my stats is man you run like crap. Apparently I have run so bad over the last 40K hands that it makes it difficult to do a solid stat analysis. We did however go over my stats, and he was able to show me a couple of area's where I can increase my aggression (mine is fairly low for a winning player). The basic summary is that I have a pretty solid game for 25NL. I need to increase my 3 betting (especially from the BTN and BB), I need to flat with my big hands more, I need to bet more on the turn in certain spots, and I need to fold on the river more. He pointed out two spedific area's where I am not betting and 1 specific area where I am not folding enough, which was worth the cost of the session in and of itself. I am not really sure what I missed, but I am hoping to get another review done, if only to see what other stats he goes over for a leak finder.

One thing I learned from the leak finder is that the more you C-bet the better success you will have. I had always thought it would be the other way around, as I attack players who C-bet to much significantly more than I do against players who don't. I know I have a Low C-bet % (around 50%), but even then my success rate around 50% as well. Apparently this is standard. Increasing your C-bet frequency increases your chances of success! I have played 2 sessions since then, and in the first one my success rate was under 40%, but in the second it was over 60%. I certainly trust Mpethy's insights in this area more than my own, so I am going to continue to C-bet at a higher percentage and see how it goes.

Of course, after the session, I played a 2K hand session and broke even. I was $40 below EV and made two really crappy calls on the rive that cost me another buy in. Over all this weekend I broke even. Sounds bad, but I was 6 buy ins below EV. So, if I had run statistiaclly even, it would have been a really good weekend for me.

Which brings me to a sad point. I have commited to pulling out $300 a month from poker to help support the family. I have enough to cover 1 more month, and with rakeback I will probably be able to make it 2, but if I don't start running better, I am probably going to have to have to drop down to 10NL. I am hoping it doesn't come to that, but being prepaired for the possability is better than denying it.

Back on the horse

Well, when you get knocked down, you have to get back up. So, after taking a day off, I did just that. I also finally took the leap and did the entire session on tables I started. It was a very interesting experience. It has been a really long time since I have felt comfortable betting 3 streets with AJ on an AQx board in after a 4 way flop. Yeah, it was that fishy at times, and that on a Wensday! I can't wait to see what it is like on a Friday night!

I did notice toward the end of my session that tables get bad pretty quickly. I didn't shut it down, but on many of my tables I wound up with 2 or 3 good aggressive players on my left (something I avoid). My method of table selection, looking for 3 stacks between 40 and 80BB's with good position, doesn't really attract a lot of sharks, so it has been a while since I have had to be diligent about dropping and adding tables.

August in Flames

Well, my good month went down the drain on Monday. Hit a bad streak and wound up loosing 6 buy ins. I'm still hopeful about this month. I just need to stay on my game and griind it out. I am hopeing to do a sweat session with El Nino tomorrow if possible and then there is the Mpethy review this weekend. It's really good timing for me. Well, with both of those sooner is better no matter the circumstances, but from an ego point of view it is good timing. I was feeling really good after the end of last month and the beginning of this one, but having another tank session that could potentially ruin another month has me questioning my approach to the game. I am going to try out a session where I start all of my tables tonight. I have been meaning to do it at some point anyway, and Wensdays have typically been the bane of my existance anyway. Results to follow!

Smooth

Well, I took Wensday through Friday off from poker, then picked back up Saturday. The bad news is that my game is getting a little sloppy. I have been making some bad calls (made a REALLY bad call last night for $20, but that is only the worst amoung many) and missing some value bets trying to get in a check raise against the wrong type of villans. On the other hand, I have been doing REALLY well with my value betting. I have been mixing in a lot of "raptor" betting with some pot size betting and I have been sizing my bets to build pots of the size I want better than I ever have. Outside of just paying attention and knowing what pot size I want to create, what has really improved has been my getting out of the mindset that I must bet X amount of the pot to prevent them from having correct odds for a portion of their range. In thinking about their range as a whole and sizing my bets, I am finding myself getting a lot of 3 streets of value from hands AK/AQ and other random hands. I have actually had relatively tight fish pay 3 streets with J high. Now, I am not winning big pots here, but when you attempt to steal the blinds with 54s your not really looking for a big pot. However, getting 3BB pre-flop, 3 on the flop and turn, plus 4 on the river is a DAMN nice pot for bottom pair.

Another aspect of my game that has really improved is adjusting to smaller stack sizes. I have been usuing larger 3 bet sizes in many situations to set up a favorable SPR post flop. The down side is that I have probably taken down a few pots pre-flop where I was a pretty decent faovrite. But to me that is preferable to playing in an odd situation where any C-bet makes it gross to shut down. The plus side is that often I can just C-bet all in. Having an SPR tailored to the player really makes post flop easy. Dry flop? Shove and take your fold equtiy. Crush that flop? Check a street and see if you can induce. Hit the worst flop ever? Check fold. I don't mind loosing the extra 2 or 3 BB that I added on pre-flop for all the times it makes me more money on those rare situations that you have to give up.

Anyway, all of this is probably just a long way of saying it's a good month so far. I have been running over 6BB/100 for the last 5.5K hands. I am color coding a lot of players so table selection is much easier. At the beginning of the month I was just looking for 3 short stacks, and I really didn't care where they were. Now I am looking for 3 short stacks, no aggro on my left (although I will deal with this if their are enough fish) and I have good position on at least 2 fish. With the auto table selector at FT, it is so easy to get 10 good tables going now. I know and am thankful that most regs don't table select well, but once you have the basics of TAG play down, no single skill will help your win rate more than table selection. I understand the reason so many people think they want to play the best players at their level. Getting experience playing better players for cheaper. The flaw in the logic is the cheaper part though. I don't sit in games I don't feel I have a BIG edge in. Sometimes this means I have a good (or even better) player at the table with me. Sometimes they even have position. And these are the times that I improve against better players. But I am still sitting at a table where I have an adge ON THE FIELD! And yes, as I move up, I will still have to learn how to adapt to better players. But so what? When I am learning, I will be playing at a higher limit. BUT I AM NOT LOOSING MORE! I will still be sitting at a table where I feel I have and edge. So I will actually be making more while I learn how to play against better players. So, good table selection means you make more when you play, are able to move up faster, and you still get to practice against good players, but you do so in situations where you are still going to be profitable. Maybe I don't learn as much today, but moving up faster means learning faster in the long run, much more so than playing the best players at X limit.

Disaster avoided?

Well, last night was a near train wreck. I started out messing with table ninja, which on one hand was great as it allowed me to stack tables and pop them out (which is something I really want to be able to do if I am going to play more than 10 tables at a time). I started out OK once I fired up the tables. I was up half a buy in and should have been up more. Then my fiance said dinner was ready, and I said I had about half an hour left. Insert karmic kick in the crotch. Yeah, I so should have just quit right then and there and had a nice dinner and evening with my girl.

I proceed to drop 4 buy ins. Lost one with KK vs. AA. Lost another due to some FPS with AQ when I should have won a medium pot. Lost another one with a flopped full house to quads. The other buy in was lost due to mostly bad play and improper adjustment to the tables. At this point I was determined that I was not going to repeat last month. I could stand a small loosing session, but no way I was going to sit on a 4 buy in looser. I yoyo'd for a bit, gaining 2 buy ins, loosing them. Then, in the span of about 2 minutes I flop top set and take down a 400BB pot against a whale who had decided to limp call, check call, donk 3bet AA and at another table I turned a straight against QQ and got another stack. At this point I was exstatic, and really ready to just give up for the day. I really considered only being down 1 buy in to be a victory. As it turned out, over the next 20 minutes I wound up taking down a bunch of small and medium pots, and actually wound up winning 5BB's!

What really killed me last month (outside of variance) were two sessions where I dropped 4 and 5 buy ins. Outside of those two sessions it was a really good month. But with them it was a disappointment to me. The last thing I want is to wind up having one or two sessions ruining this month to, especially after such a good start.
It would have actually been a good session if I would have just listened to my Fiance though. Stupid me.

On the plus side, I was able to contact Mpethy (actually, his assistant) and am in the process of setting up a leak finder review. I am MASSIVELY pumped about this. I have never attempted to use HEM to plug my leaks, so learning how to do it from a pro is well worth the money. The down side is that I thought I had a few more hands than I actually do. I am going to have to find a way to get in 7K hands before the session. Motivation, right?

Loving August

Well, last night was a pretty ho hum session. By the time I got to poker at 10 I was tired, hungry, and really just wanted to get my points in, get some dinner and go to bed. My game really reflected it. I wasn't as aggressive in some spots and I didn't make a move all night. Just straight forward poker. Still, I continue my rungood for the month and finished up a buy in. I made some really good calls against mid stacks that I never would have considered when playing rush. Just felt good snapping people off. I must say, as much as I love the rush format, I think it is a huge disadvantage to those with decent tabel selection skills. As much as I had intended to stay familiar with Rush, I don't know if I will actually do it now. My win rate is just so much better at regular tables.

I did have one really fun hand last night. There were 2 limpers to me in the SB, and I had 87o. Not a hand I normally play OOP without initiative (and definately not a hand I iso with), but I was more than happy to complete with it and play against 2 fishies. The BB (also a fish) decides to raise it up to 3BB. Yeah, he got 3 callers. The flop? 773. So I check to see what happens, and the BB C-bets, 2 folds. I raise it up smallish. Get called. Turn is a 6. I decide to check again, because going pot pot won't get stacks in and I think checking will induce a bet from a LARGE portion of the villans range. Yup, I got the double check raise in! Sadly, the villan folded on the river for a half pot bet, but it was still one of the most amusing hands I have ever played.

Well, I am off for the day, but here's hoping I haven't hit the doomswitch!

Monthly wrap up and balance

Well, last month was about as close to a train wreck as it could have been while I still hit most of my goals. I moved up from 10NL rush to 25NL rush, then I hit my biggest downswing ever, 11. I was well on my way to recovering from that and felt confident that I had figured out a solid playing style for 25NL that was profitable for me when my HUD stopped working correctly, at the end or RUSH week no less. So I moved to the regular tables. That has been going really well from a theoretical stand point. Oddly, the better I played statistically, the worse I did financially. I wound up finishing the month $180 below EV, but even with that I still made my goals.

$75 for iron man
$50 for rush week
$80 in rakeback
$35 in tournament play
$65 in NL
and $12 in PLO

for a grand total of:
$305 - so I beat my goal by $5!

My goals for next month are to:
1) make $500 in total profit
2) Get Table ninja set up so I can start playing 16 tables instead of 10.
3) Get a stat review from Mpethy.

and 4) take a shot at 50NL with a plan of dropping down if I drop 2 buy ins and winning 625NL buy ins. This is actually unlikely to happen unless I hit my $500 goal early, but it's still on the list!

I had a very good start to this month yesterday, when I won 3 buy ins. It feels good to hit 15% of your monthly goal in one day!


Now...


BALANCE:

I have seen a lot of people at 2P2 and heard a lot of instructors at CR talking about balance and unexploitable play lately, and it is absolutely driving me nuts. Balance is a fine and wonderful thing against regs you are going to be playing on a regular basis and who are going to actually notice. As a matter of fact, in today's game I think it is something you have to do or you will become a reg fish target. That said, I am so damn sick of people talking about balance. Listen, if you are playing 25NL or below, please forget about balance. Even if you happen to be playing someone often enough that they are building reads on you, what are the odds that particular player is good enough to figure out what you are doing AND is able to proplerly exploit it? I mean really, there are so few player at that level who can exploit you in that manner, and if you are playing against them then you have bigger problems than balance (like table selection?).

Also, if you don't have history with someone, THEN THERE IS NO NEED FOR BALANCE! Seriously, if you have only played 100 hands, then no, you don't need to be bluffing in that spot to balance your range and you don't need to C-bet that A high dry board with AK. You could and should take the line that will have the highest expected value at that point. And maybe that means check folding instead of C-betting. Maybe that means you bluff catch instead of value bet. You simply don't have enough hands/history to make it worth the decreased win rate. If for some reason you start playing this person all the time AND they are able to adjust if you play unbalanced, then by all means start balancing your ranges. But you lose so much money if you are adjusting before that moment, and frankly it would be better to be unbalanced and be taken advantage of by the few regs who noticed than it is to lose out on the extra value that you get from being exploiting all the fish.

Rant over!

And random brag. I did a player report last night on players I had 500 hands or more. Of the 6 players I have that many hands on, only 1 was a winner. Table selection is one of the least appriciated skills!

On the down side, I have been starting tables recently, and I got owned playing HU for a bit last night. Lost half a buy in. Lesson learned (outside of HU play) is that when you start a table, make sure it's NL and not PL!

Silver linings

Well, this was going to be another whine fest after an attrocious bought of luck last night, but instead I choose to look at my slansky bucks. After all, statistics will coverge over time, so it is better to look at probabilities.

So, since I have moved from Rush to normal tables, I have averages well over $30 an hour and felt like one of the best players at the table most of the time. I feel more comfortable and confident than ever. I am starting to get a decent amount of notes and color coding (although not as much as I would like!), and all of this is with only 10 tables! After I can cash out, I am going to get Table Ninja, which should have a dramatic increase in $ per hour as I am already more than capable of playing 16 tables, but I really need the ability to pop tables out so I can take notes and color code while I play. If I can get this done relatively early next month, then I am going to increase my daily goals from 100FPP's to 200 and go for the top level of iron man.

In fact, I have done so well this last week that I am going to increase my planned goal of $500 next month to $600. Yeah, I know. But gotta love the optamism, right?

Just another day

Well, last night was a roller coaser ride. Started out loosing a flip for half a stack. Then I got limp reraised while holding AQ. The limper was a half stacker limping the button behind to an EP limper. I shoved and got snapped off by KK. I also got set under set, but I was able to lose the minimum there. An aggro player checked back a AQ7 flop and then called a pot sized lead on a turn 2 (I had 22). Alarm bells were going off like crazy, so I just flatted. The BB poted the river, and amazingly the overly aggro player flats. Now I am all sorts of confused. The turn really made me think set, but if they have a set, why are they just flatting here? Still don't know the answer to that one, but I only lost half a stack, so no worries. I paid off another set in a wierd 3 bet pot, but only lost 1/3 of a stack there. It's actually kind of funny to me. In general these sets were played horribly, as the villans are leaving a lot of money on the table against most villans. But against me they both actually got the maximum because of their strange lines.

Anyway, despite all that I still wound up winning a little over half a buy in. After playing rush for so long playing 25NL is so relaxing. There is no way I could have had a winning session at rush with all of those cooler situations. And I am starting to get some notes and tags on regs and fishies, so table selection should be getting easier. And I really don't understand why people don't like the new FT table selection tool. I think it's amazing. Find a table with 3 less than full stacks, sit down. I don't have much of a hand sample, but adding in notes and color codes should make it even easier.

After I finished up my points for the day, I decided to give PLO a shot. I had never really played PLO, instead going for PLO8. Wound up winning a buy in (2NL - so no biggie), but it was a ton of fun. It really felt odd to only have 4 tables going and to be able to pay attention to everything.

Fate and some KO's

Yesterday I got into a somewhat lengty discussion on the differences in fun factor/monetary rewards between MTT's, SNG's, and cash games. The quick version is that SNG's are the easiest/most boring way to go from a little knowledge with a bankroll. MTT's have the most dead money and the most fun, but have the highest variance as you really don't make money until you hit that big score. Cash games have the steadiest money, but also the best players, you never get that big score, and aren't as fun.

So, I get home and am promptly reminded that my fiance and our two oldest children were off for horseback riding lessons. So it's just me and the baby. Oh, and the baby hasn't taken a nap all day and just finished eating. So I sit down to watch a CR video and rock Dom to sleep, and low and behold, they kicked off a new MTT series where DamnRinger is going to build a roll from $50 playing MTT's. I start watching it and he loads up on $3 KO tourneys, which I have always thought were incredably soft, so I am excited. When Dom falls asleep, I take this as a sign. The're turbo's. I am alone, and the baby is asleep. How can this not be a sign that I need to fire up some turbo KO's? I can't play cash (I yell to much).

So I fire up 4 tourneys while I watch the rest of the video and hold the sleeping baby. If you aren't a parent, then you might not know, but babies have a really bad habit of waking up cranky if you set them down while sleeping, and I have no intention of messing with the baby gods and tempting fate (who is on my side, right?) by putting the baby in his rocker. I tile the tables. 3 of them are going along with nothing happening. On the fourth someone shoves when I have AA. I call and they show Q6. Fate is loving me! A short while later I see an open raise to my KK on the table where I doubled up. I raise, they call, the flop is mono Q high and I have the K high redraw. They shove and I snap it of thinking I am going to to have a big stack so I can steal! They show AQ with the redraw (CRAP), and the turn is an A. Damn. Back to a starting stack on all 4 tables.

Now, the blinds are starging to get a bit high, so I am looking for good spots. No one is folding pre-flop, or post flop really, so I am looking for showdown hands. I have 14BB's on my first table, and there is a limper and a shortie shove and I have AKs. No way I am going to find a better spot than this. A chance at some dead money and a KO. I shove, and the original limper calls. So, as long as I beat the original limper, I am going to come out ahead, and if I beat both it will be close to a triple up and a decent stack. They turn over 77 (original limper) and TT, so I am flipping. And a beautiful K hits on the flop. Like I said, fate is with me tonight. I got this one in the bag. The turn is a 7. Down to 3.

A short while later, I get AQ and open from MP. The flop is A high, so I c-bet and the BB shoves on me. I snippity snap and get called by A5. I'm dancing a little jig. Fate LOVES me. This fool is drawing to running 5's or running Diamond's. Shit. I hate diamonds. Really. Hate. Diamonds. Down to 2.

So now I have two tables where I am shortish and I have 1 knock out. But fate is on my side. The signs are there. Just keep looking for good spots. I have 64s on the button and it folds to me. Down to 6BB's on this table, so shove it is. I get snapped off by K7, but the flop bring is 448, so I double up! Fate loves me and I now have a decent stack on one table. Then I have TT in the big blind. A tightish player opens from MP. I flat with the intention of shoving any flop without an A or KQJ. I figure a stop and go is a little better than a flip (cause this player is tight, right?) The flop? T63. Yeah, Fate loves me. Pot size bet left, so no need to make a move. MP shoves, and I snap it off. A6. So, as long as it isn't running Aces or spades, I am good. Shit. I hate spades. REALLY. HATE. SPADES. Down to 1. Fate, why do you taunt me so?

Now I am down to 1 table, and this table just sucks. I haven't had a hand yet. I stole the blinds once so far, but I am seriously short, 4BB's, and I have one aggro donk on my left and one on my right. Both have monster stacks and are calling absurdly light. I have 2 KO's so far and have 3 hands till the blinds cripple me. So there went half a buy in. I am looking for any reason what so ever to get my money in. And the aggro donk on my right folds. I have 22. Yeah, that would be enough of a reason for me. The other aggro donk folds. HOLY CRAP! I have a shot at stealing the blinds. LOL, yeah right. I get cold called by someone with 12 BB's. GOD DAMN IT! At least shove and protect my hand! Nah, the SB shoves over the top and 12BB calls. They turn over TT and QQ. Well, I am out. I never suck out, so there is half a buy in wasted. Fate. We need to have a talk. I flop a 2. Whatever. The turn will be a Q or T. No? Well, then the river. No. Really? No? I just sucked out? I am to awe struck to do a happy dance (which is probably good because I would wake the baby). Fate, you with me now, or is this just more torture?

I now have a small stack, but enough to get to the final table (and cash). I'm not going to play anything unless I have a clear edge. So I am now in Kurt's Zen fold pay attention mode. Folding away. Down to 15 players. Fold, fold. 14. J3 in the BB, so getting ready for zen fold, but it gets limped and is a 3 way pot. J53 with 2 diamonds. I lead for pot and get a caller. Turn is a diamond. I really hate diamonds, but my hand is to strong to consider folding this short. So I shove and hope. And get called. Hope dies a little. Villan turns over A5 with no redraw, so as long as I can avoid a 5 outer, I am going to have a medium stack! Holy crap, I have a medium stack and another KO! Come one fate. Work with me! Now I have a good stack, but both aggro donks have me covered and there are a bunch of shorties. So back to zen folding mode. Then it happens. 25 minutes till break. And Dom wakes up.

For those of you who don't have kids, let me give you a little baby education. You see, when a baby takes a nap after eating, they pee. Now, when they wake up they have a wet diaper, are groggy, and really don't know what they want. Now, Moms will tell you that you need to change the daiper right away (ya know, avoid diaper rash and keep the baby comfortable/happy) and Dads will tell you that when Mom is around. the truth is that most times the diaper isn't full, and they baby is OK if for some reason you can't change their diaper right away, but they'll be a little more cranky than usual (I love you honey!). Which means that Dom is now playing one of his favorite games. Daddy stand and bounce.

So now I am in Daddy stand and bounce Kurt's zen fold pay attention mode. I never realized how hard it was to hit a mouse button in my life. 13. Go hurry up break. 12. Oh, great, he's hungry to. 11. Fate, I no longer like you. You can kiss my arse. 10. 86s in the BB. 3BB stack shoves. Getting ready for Zen fold baby bounce. Everyone else folds. I am getting close to 3 to 1, and if I loose it won't hurt my chip position. Yeah, I called with 8 high. Such a nit! Is that an 8? Why yes it is. Do I hold? Why yes I do. Not only did I just make the final table, but I got another KO, and we will be rearanging the tables, which is GREAT for me, cause my spot SUCKS BALLS!

Now, we get to the final table, and the two aggro donks have 45K and 55K. Another player, who is decently tight, has 40K. There are 3 shorties and 2 other mid stacks. So, Aggro donk with the big stack? Yeah, he is seated to my right again. And to my left? Shortie and Aggro donk 2. So my table dynamic hasn't improved much. The 3 shorties mean zen fold mode for me, and it would be criminal for me to get knocked out without a BIG edge with such big pay jumps. I need 6th to break even, and I can easily fold to that. Shorty out. Then the 4th place stack decides to try outplaying aggro donk on my right. Yeah, he did just call your open with T8o, and yes, he did hit second pair. And yes, he did just call you down. And yes, you did just get knocked out with 15BB's while 2 players have 3. Thank you for the pay bump. The other shorties fall, along with the other mid stack.

We are now down to 4 players. Aggro donk on my right has 110K. Aggro donk on my left has 80K. Tighty has 65K, and I have 30K. The plus side? I can now punish the aggro donks, don't have to worry about chip position, and Fate is on my side! The bad new? I am the shorty, and Dom is now out of graggy cranky mode and into I wanna wiggle and play mode. At this point a funny thing happens. I start playing back. Tighty starts playing back. Aggro donks are now slowly bleading off chips as we aren't letting them min raise or limp steal any more and their not adjusting. Then a miricle happens. Aggro donk on my right disconnects in the middle of a big pot with Tighty. Super ninja diaper change mode on! As I race to get the diaper changed with Dom thinking this is fun play time (STOP SQUIRMING DAMN YOU!) I stop and think. Why is it that aggro donk type players all of the sudden loose their connection when they get played back at, then magically reappear when they have been forced to fold, only to come back on before the next hand gets to them and auto folds, then tell the other player how lucky they were for said disconnection?

So I now have bought some time, and we have 5 minutes till break. I build my stack up a bit, and it's break time. Dom gets snapped into his rocker, and I am OFF! Bottle ready, check. Set Dom up with bottle propped in his mouth so he can feed himself, check (did I mention I love you honey?). 2 minutes left. Bathroom, check. Drink, (cause I am a little thirtsy after 25 minutes of Daddy stand and bounce Kurt's zen fold pay attention game). Back with 30 seconds to spare. Dom is happy. And I get to sit down and actually be comfortable playing. Fate, you did that just to torment me, right? My first final table in forever, and you made damn good and sure I was way to preoccupied to enjoy it. But now it's on bitches. No more nit clinic. I got mad skillz. LOL, yeah right, as if skill really matters this deep in a Turbo. Balls baby, I got balls. And those do matter.

Me and tighty go to work bleeding the aggro donks. I am doing it shoveing pre-flop as I have 12BB's and restealing rocks. Tighty is bleading them post flop. We both build up slowly, and then I get 33 in the SB. 2 folds and I shove. I get called by AQs and win, dropping Aggro donk on my right to 8BB's and now have enough chips to play post flop. Tighty is playing a little to tight against me, so I can steal some of his blinds now. He three bets a little, but mostly leaves me alone. Aggro donk on my right got tight when he lost his stack, and we bled him out. Aggro donk on my left is now the target for me and tighty with 3 players to go, and he still has the chip lead! Well, had. Now he is the shorty. Now he is gone. It's me and tighty. He has a 2 to one chip lead. Now, I can honestly say I am glad that Tighty made it. Yeah, it would be much easier to beat aggro donk, but Tighty has my respect. He played a damn good final table. We go back and forth. At first he opens up a bit more than I suspect he would, then I adjust and play back. We get in with AT vs 77 and my 7's hold. So now I have the chip lead. 2 hands later I get it in with KQ vs. KJ. He hits a J, and then runner runner flush, just cause fate thinks its funny to remind me. Thanks fate. Really appreciate it. A few hands later I get it in with K2 against KQ, and lose. Can't really complain though. I got 6 KO's and second place, along with 2KO's in my other tourneys. Make $35. Overall, I say that was a good night. I still think it's funny that I found good situations in 3 tourneys and lost. I got it in bad in 1 and won. It was a blast though. So much more fun than cash.

I am now off to buy fate a present. I'm thinking something totally useless for her. Magic 8 ball? Yeah, that's about right.

Weekend update

Well, it was a pretty good weekend for me. I decided that since my HUD is only working on 1 table of rush, to go back and play regular tables instead. It was like a breath of fresh air. After playing Rush for the last 2 months, all the action at regular tables was almost amazing. At first I was still playing to tight post flop, and then I over adjusted and was calling down a little to light. Part of that just bad play because I was up and knew I could get it back anyway, so why the fuck not? But whatever. I wound up playing 2 sessions and around 1300 hands, and won just under 3 buy ins. Between variance and my bad calls it should have been a little over 4 though. Still, it just felt so much easier than it used to. And it was fun to run 15/17 instead of 10/13. Definately gives me confidence for when I start taking shots at 50NL.

For those of you who don't play both, just to give you an idea, it usually takes 750 hands to get 100FPP's per day at rush tables. At the normal tables it took 650 hands to get the same number of point. That's about 13% more FPP per hand.

I also found my new favorite player EVER! I wound up sitting at a table with someone who was playing 91/50/22.5% 3 bet. If this person put money in the pot pre-flop, then they would call any raise no matter how big. The first hand I say he called a 3 bet squeeze shove from a 40BB stack (they both had about 40BB's at this point) with T9o. I saw this and promplty took a not. A couple of hands later he opens and I have AKs, so I shove and he calls with 54s. He rivers me, but I am counting the money at this point. Unfortunatly I only get one hand to play against him (which I won) before I quit for the day, but it was still fun as hell. But what really amazed me is how the rest of the table adapted to him. People were raise folding to him pre-flop, calling 8x opens and pot sized C-bets, only to fold on the turn. Calling down 3 streets with TPGK. It was just killing me watching these people. When I left he was up to almost 3 buy ins on the table - and I was up on him by about $5.

And finally, after this weekend I am holding out hope that I can turn this month around and make my goal of $400 profit this month. That would be amazing to me after my crappy start.

Warning: Bitch fest

The last couple of days have been really frustrating. Of my 10 biggest hands over the last 2 days, I have won 2. 1 was a misclick that I meant to fold, one was a lost coin flip, and 1 was JJ vs. AA of a shorty. The other 6 were suck outs. 1 was a 3 outer that allowed the villan to get paid (he had 12 outs, but I was only paying off 3 of them). On the plus side, I lost less than 2 buy ins over this stretch, so I am pretty happy about that. I am still not sure if I am happy that Mpethy crushed my EV theory. It's really annoying to know that I am so far below equity for such a long time. But I am a strong believer in probabilities, so I believe that at some point everything will balance out, so the higher I can get when it does balance out, the better for me. Knowing others have gone through worse doesn't really help though. It's more a patience thing than it is a confidence or money thing. I already know I can beat 25NL for a decent win rate, but due to me being below EV, I am still grinding 25NL. I feel like I am chomping at the bit to move up.

Whine fest over.

Back in Black!

Well, its official. I am back in posotive. Well, I was actually in the posotive after Sunday, but due to a bug in HEM, it didn't show as posotive until today. Still, it feels very good to have come back from such a big down swing. I am still down at 25NL rush, but not by much and I have had 8 solid sessions in a row now.

Last nights session basically boiled down to 2 hands. The first one was a suck out by me against a short stack. I had 66 on an 478 flop and the shorty open shoved for about $8. It didn't make sense to me, so I called. Oops. Turned over Q8. Binked a 6 though, so it worked out well for me. I was really disappointed in myself though. I have been doing really well at looking at odd lines and folding in situations like this, and this is a reminder why. Still, nice to get paid and learn a lesson, or at least be reminded.

The second hand was very strange. I think there were about 5 fish at the table and they were all looking to donate chips. There were 3 limpers to me in MP2 (I know - 3 limpers in a rush game and I'm not in the blinds?), so I look down and see AKo. Hit the pot button. The button and Big Blind both call and I am thinking this is giong to be a 6 way hand with those kind of odds out there, but then the first two limpers fold and the third limper pots it back at me. This player is sitting on about 90BB, but his line just makes no sense to me. I mean how can you have a big hand as the THIRD limper? I'm not worried about the players left to act, as I can't see either of them having a big hand. So, I look at all that dead money and shove. The villan called and I assumed he would have a low/mid pair and we would be racing. Nah. AJs. AND I HOLD!

Other than that, I tried out some 6 max rush last night. I played ok even though I wound up loosing 60BB. I was suprised just how retardedly people play 6 max. I had no fold equity what so ever. The play was just hideous all around. So much dead money out there. The only down side is that you HAVE to have a hand there. I know people say 6 max and FR are pretty much the same, but that's not even close to true. Players have a completly different mind set, and it is the dynamics created by the mix of players that creates the play, not the positions and cards. Still, it was a lot of fun.

Vacations and poker don't mix

This was a rough weekend overall. We had a family reunion this weekend about 3 hours away, which really isn't a big deal, but everything getting up to that point is why vacations and trips are so hard. I have fond and wistful memories of packing a bag in 10 minutes and being out the door. Now it takes half a day to get everything together and get the house ready for the long absence (ya know, 2 days). So Friday I managed to squeeze in poker. I played 25NL for about 10 minutes, but I was having some serious issues with HEM. While I was trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with it (cause you know it didn't even occur to me that I should drop down to 5NL until I fix the damn program) I won 2 buy ins. While I was happey to have won, I really hate playing without reads. It's all nit/steal/fold to any one raising without a set, just because I know everyone is so tight.

After about 10 minutes of doing this I have to hold the baby. At this point it occurs to me that I should drop down while I figure out what the hell is going on. So I do that and figure out that of the 4 tables I can open (what the hell is up with this? I thought you could open 8?) 1 has no stats, 1 has never changing stats that seem to be in binary code for the players names, and 2 tables were working properly. So I keep playing 5NL while holding Dom just to get some points, and then I get about a half hour window where I can play. Of course I played fast as hell to get the points. Put on a pure nit clinic, get my points, and out the door.

The next day was similar. I spent most of the day with the family, but I snuck off and played for about 20 minutes. Then we went home and had a couple of freinds come over. I appologized and played more speed poker. Yeah, I know its rush, but I like to take my time, and this is 2 days in a row where I am playing much faster than I want to. Get my points, shut it down, and proceed to get wasted and stay up all night.

By Sunday night I was exahsted, so I decided that grab some beer and fire up 10NL and just get the points in. I didn't play super fast this time, but I didn't play slow either. I did, however, play like crap. Some of the worst poker I have ever played. But I was so tired at the time that I can't remember any hands, which has never happened to me before. Still, I won $15 and got my points in, so I met my goals!


So, after a long weekend I wound up winning 2 buy ins at 25NL (still haven't completely recovered from that 9 buy in down swing, but I am getting pretty close), padded my winnings at 10NL (now that I know how to adjust to the player pool, I can't imagine how I donked off so many stacks initially) and made my RUSH week bonus. Overall, it was a very successfull weekend. And I hope I never have to go through it again!

It's good, it's good, it's gone

Last night was an interesting session. I start of winning a big pot with AK vs. AQ on an A high 3 way flop. I then loose with JJ vs. QQ against a shortie. Then I see an opener and 2 callers with AT on the flop, so I decide to squeeze and get 3 callers! A set gets paid off and I loose another JJ vs. QQ against a 40BB stack. And this is the first 50 hands of my session!

At this point I am up a decent amount and thinking this is going to be a very interesting session. Then I went card dead/missed everything, and the action dried up. I dropped down a buy in and was generally getting frustrated as hell. At this point the rum kicked in a bit, and I decided I was going to look for marginal spots in position and fuck with people. It worked out pretty well, and I wound up only loosing $7. It was pretty fun. Might have to start doing that some more.

I have to say, if this is what 50NL is like, I can really understand why so many players have a hard time. People are so tight that you really want to make plays, but at the same time if you make one big mistake it can take forever to get it back.

Speed rush?

Last night was crazy busy. My oldest daughter had her last softball game, followed by a pool party. So I get home from work and jump straight in the station wagon with the kids and off to the game. We go to the pool party, and then go get some formula for the kiddies. By the time we get home, unpack the car, and get the dogs outside, I have an hour and need to get those 100 FTP points for rush week. I fire up 2 tables, and of course the HUD is only working on 1. I close the second and restart. I get two running and have to try 3 times to get the third working. About 15 minutes in I realize that 3 won't get it done. So I fire up a forth table. Now I am playing 4 tables of rush (never done that before) cascaded so I can't see the action (never done that at rush before) at a limit that has been giving me difficulties and I can't close out the tables when I get up to 150BB (this is standard for me as I am not overly comfortable deep - and really it is mostly the good players who are deep) and I am trying to play fast to get those damn points.

This is not a good recipie!

Or is it? I wound up playing really tight for me (9/12, 2.6% 3 bet) but I also had my best session of 25NL (not monitarily, but play wise). I only had 3 situations all night that I wasn't sure of, I made a lot of good lay downs and thin value bets, and really felt confident for the first time. In doing my session review I only found 1 mistake, which might not be a mistake. I need to get some stove time to figure it out though.

Looking back at it, I think not being able to think about anything other than the decision in front of me was the best medicine for my RUSH blues. No worrying about suck outs, traps, or FPS. Overall I picked up a little over a buy in, so I am now down about 5 buy ins at 25NL rush. I am hoping that this level is much like 10NL where I lost a ton in the beginning and then figured out what works and went on a pretty solid tear.

Oh, and Mpethy, I don't like you any more. I was perfectly happy in my blissfully ignorant world believing that that all in EV stat was flawed and good players always low. But no, you had to burst that bubble wide open, so now everytime I look at that stat I want to club a baby seal. Yeah, 800 hands, and 1 buy in below EV again, and don't even ask how far below EV I am for the month. Thanks to Happy Pixel, Kurt, EN09, DDAWD, and a few others I'm feeling OK (or at least no poker suicidal) over my downswing and below EV swing, but damn poker gods, when you gonna let me get even on that damn EV thing? It's only been 18 months now!

Half a step forward

Well, one of the hardest things in poker is to get back after a big downswing. Your confidence is low and you want to tweak your game. This is probably easier for an established player, but for an up and comer who is tweaking their game every session anyway, the uncertainty makes overadjustment a little to easy of a trap to fall into.

Last night I fired up another session of 25NL and it didn't start off well. I ran a bluff catching line on someone, but they showed up with TT to my 88. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done that with 88 (although I think it would have been a great line with 99), although it was pretty close, so I don't regret it. A few hands later I defend with AJ, but wind up loosing another medium pot to runner runner flush. At this point I was down half a buy in. It's not much, but it gave me the feeling of running on a treadmill. I wound up hovering between down a half a buy in to a full buy in for most of the session. About half way through I ran my TPGK into a flush draw and it held, and I thought my session was about to turn around. But about 5 hands later my set ran into a 4 flush board, so I had to let it go. Then I ran my AA into a set, but I think I lost the minimum on the hand.

Then I hit a FH against a flush, and from that point forward I slowly increased my winnings. I wound up winning about $15. Not a great session (or even a good one really) but it definately helped my poker ego to have a couple of winners in a row. Oddly enough I had started playing a much more weak tight game, which seems to be working. People are just floating and trying to take pots away to much. I C-bet less than 60%, but still have a success rate of under 40%. I'm not sure how much I like playing the more passive trapping style, but a lot the time I am picking up an extra bet in situations where I wouldn't be getting any. The bet check call line and check call lead lines have become much more common.

An example of this was last night when I had AK. I isolated to limpers (I don't iso light anymore unless I know the villan is limping trash - to many players limping strong hands at rush) and the flop came down K84. It was a 3 way pot and I had position, so I decided to check it back. I think betting here gets to many folds and the flop was dry as hell. The plan worked, as the second player lead out for $2 on a turned 4. Not a bad card for me as it pretty much removes a set of 4's. I call and do a happy dance as the other player in the hand called. The river is another 8, so I called again. Sadly, the villan happened to have 78 in the hand, but you can't really get upset about someone hitting a 2 outer on you. On the other hand, it's hard to take a long term approach when you are trying to dig out of a whole.

9 steps forward. 1 step back

Friday and Saturday were the worst back to back poker days of my career. Let me first start by saying my play wasn't stellar by any means. I don't think there was any way I could have come out of those sessions as a winner, but I didn't have to lose as much as I did. Friday I dropped 4 buy ins, and Saturday I dropped 5. The problem is that both days I lost every big pot I played. Didn't matter if I was aheador behind, the villan got my money. At one point I 5 bet shoved on a LAG/AGGRO tard in a SB/BTN war with KK and said they have AA. Sure enough. Anyway, I have a 10 buy in stop loss (yeah, I know thats a HUGE stop loss, but I have the bankroll for it, and the extra rakeback/iron man points were worth the risk) and by Sunday I was actually afraid I might hit it. The last thing I want to have to do is grind out another 5010NL buy ins to take another shot. I had some problems with my desktop, so I had to play on my laptop, which litterally had 0 HH to work with, so I wound up playing pretty weak tight over all, but I wound up winning a little over a buy in. I pretty much avoided all marginal spots, played 1 table, and took really good notes. Honestly, at that point I really couldn't take another losing session without dropping down.

Overall, I am down 6 buy ins, so I still have 4 to work with. I'm hoping that I can get back to even this week. It's a pretty hard thing for my ego right now, but if I plan on moving up and being a pro, I am going to have to get used to these swings.

Tilt went down, so I started something new

So, by the time I got around to playing poker last night, Tilt was down. This left me with my Stars account which is pretty much empty. A few months ago I got into a pretty interesting debate with King Spew stating that I think 40BB's is a horrible stack size as it creates a lot of awkward stack to pot ratio's. He made a lot of points that made me reevaluate my opnions. I had largely forgotten about this until I saw Mpethy and Kurt talking about there win rates with various stack sizes and how their win rates with 40BB's is pretty much the same as their win rate with 100. This really intrigued me, as I hadn't got to actual win rates with King Spew.

Well, I decided that I would go ahead and work with 40BB stacks on my stars account. I had to make a few adjustments. First, I adjusted my bank roll requirements to 40. I think the variance will be about the same in terms over overall BB, but it should be much higher regarding actual buy ins. The second adjustment is to run tighter, close to nit stats. I also think that TN will be required as you will have to table hop constantly. I was able to run 13 tables without TN, but I don't have the patience or desire to spend overly long at 2NL - 10NL again.

Now, for the potential benefits. First, moving up will be faster. Instead of needing to win 2000BB to move up (per my usual win 20 buy ins), even with 40 buy ins you only 1600BB. Second, it creates a stack size that most players aren't comfortable with. Third, bonus money will have a MUCH bigger impact. With rake back I win a free buy in every 5K hands. Well, with this stack, it will be a free buy in every 2K hands. And finally, If I can make the same amount of money overall but risk less money to make it, well, why not give it a shot?

So, my plan is to use the MR a lot as it will keep a decent SPR and put villans in awkward situations. This won't really come into effect at 2NL as players are so bad, but that's fine. Just means I will move up faster. I only got to play for about 40 minutes last night (and man did I forget how much of a pain it is to sit in and out of tables) but I won 2 buy ins. In reality it probably won't make a difference, as between Iron Man/rakeback/developing a database for Mpethy to look at I won't ever actually get around to playing at stars for another couple of months, but it never hurts to explore new ideas.

Another milestone day!

Last night was an EPIC run good session. I decided to play 10NL rush as I just wanted to have some fun and not worry to much. The session started out well. I opened AQ in EP, and the board came down J89. It was a pretty dry board overall and I was OOP, so I decided I was going to double barrel as long as the turn wasn't a J, 9, or T, and bluff catch if I hit an A or Q. It came down as a 5 and I fired the second bullet. Another call and I was pretty much done with the hand, but the river was an A. At this point I decide to bluff catch the river, as what hand that I beat is really going to call 3 barrels? So I check and the villan fires pot. I tanked, but decided to go with the plan, and was rewarded when the villan showed K9.

Thats kind of how the session went. My plans worked out to either limit losses or maximize wins. There is only 1 fold I wasn't sure of, but when the PFA fired a bullet and I called with TPTK, and we were both check raised, I am OK folding TPTK. If they were bluffing, good game them. I wound up putting in a 1,400 hand session winning at 20pt/bb100 - yeah, you read that right! I finished the session up 6 buy ins, so I am now a winning 10NL rush player officially! For a total of up 3 buy ins and a win rate of just under 1ptbb/100. Considering the massive pile of crap I had in my first few sessions, I am OK with that.

Anyway, now that I am posotive in 10NL, I am going to stick to primarily 25NL, except when inebriated or holding Dom. It's time for me to put my big boy pants. I also decided that instead of following my standard win 20 buy ins before moving up, I am going to go with up 10 and take shots. Once I hit that mark, I will take shots with the loose a buy in, drop down and win 3 more. One of the things I just figured out about rush last night (yeah, I'm a bit slow at times) is that as long as you are willing to drop down, I really don't need to follow such strict bank roll requirements. It made sense playing 20 tables as you needed those buy ins to even be able to play the tables. But with rush you just don't need that much money to play.

The other milestone last night. My bank roll just hit 4 digits.

Weekend update

Well, it was a 3 day weekend, so I managed to get some poker in. Not as much as I hoped, but more than I expected. Overall it was a pretty good weekend. First, I got in about 3K hands of 25NL rush. I won half a buy in in my first session and just over a buy in in my second. That's the good news. The bad news is I was playing scared. Not scared money, but scared to make moves and plays. I was playing really nitty and passiing up spots because I didn't feel comfortable. The good news is that my last session was much better. I was playing a better game, but it wasn't a great session money wise. Wound up breaking even mostly due to 2 hands. One was basically a coin flip on the flop with my KJs on an 8 high flush flop. I check raised and felt I had to call it off with what I considered to be about 40% equity against this players range. Turns out I was wrong, as the player shoved 99. I hit my K on the turn, but they hit their 1 outer on the river. I'm not overly upset with the hand, as I had 51% equity at the time, but loosing a 130BB is difficult when you are getting comfortable at a new level.

The other hand I am actually VERY happy with how I played it, although 2P2 would say I played it horribly. I called a UTG open from someone playing 20/4 with QQ. It was a small sample size (just over 100 hands) but this player hadn't C-bet once. They C-bet and I was VERY happy. At this point I put them on AA/KK as I don't think AQ is in their UTG opening range. So I'm doing back flips when an A comes and this player bets again. At this point I go ahead and call down. The sample isn't big enough for me to fold the second nuts and they weren't betting overly large. I wound up loosing about half a stack by the river. I think that was the tipping point for the session, and after that I played a much better game. I wound up breaking even after the session, so I am somewhat happy. Over all I have played just under 5K hands and am up just over 2 buy ins without rakeback. So, in 5 sessions I am already 10% of the way to taking shots at 50NL. No matter what though, I am going to stick at 25NL for at least 50K hands. I have done some research, and I decided I want to get a stat review by Mpethy. A lot of the regs I respect said that 1 2 hour session added 1-2BB/100 to their game, and that would be HUGE. The down side is you need a decent sample and I just lost my database not to long ago. I actually think this is probably pretty good though considering just how much my game has changed, so it is probably better to get a new sample.

The other good news for me is that I now feel like I have 10NL rush figured out and can play there any time and in any condition and make a profit. This is good news as one of my goals this month was to make 10NL rush my new goof of spot/tired/inebriated playing ground. On the 4th I got home and put the kids to bed and fired up the game. I was a bit drunk and really wanting to goof around trying new lines and wierd situations. I got a little more drunk and played around 2K hands. I roller coastered all over the place, but around 1.5K hands in I was down 2 buy ins and decided to just go get the money. 500 hands later I am up about 2 bucks and head off to bed. This is pretty much my final test of being able to crush a level. If I can go in drunk and fooling around and still manage to pull a profit, then that level becomes my bitch.

On the bonus front, the Academy challeng points are suffering now that I don't have the Ferguson. The Ferguson was bad, but some of these others are just stupid. Seriously, how often do you have a flush draw and someone bets less than 20% of the pot? I mean I have it on, but I expect the points to slow down a TON. I am on pace for gold this month, which would be huge (3 free buy ins!). I can't wait to see how much I get in rake back Friday to. Gotta love that free money!

Oh, and the BEST part of the weekend? While doing my session review last night, I noticed that HEM has given me the ABC TAG! First time I have ever seen this tag. I never understood why people hate being called ABC. Uhm, apparently it is profitable up to and including 200NL (which is higher than my target level at the moment!) and can easily make you 6 digits a year. Call me a tag fish/nit tag/whatever the hell else you want - just call me paid!

A month in review

Well, this has been a very good month for me. I increased my Bankroll by almost 40% this month. I figured out how to steadily beat 10NL rush (HUGELY important as rush is all I can usually play due to family), got back into 25NL FR games, took my first shot at 25NL rush, got Iron Man for the first time ever AND qualified for the 1 a day free roll (which gives me 2 free tourneys in July!), and I started getting Academy points (a little over 20% of the way to a $100 bonus!)

A rough estimate:
Winnings: 210
Rakeback: $75
Iron man: $25 (not counting the medals cause I have no idea how much their worth)
Academy: $20

Total for the month: $330 - not bad considering I started at 5NL and 10NL!

I AM IRON MAN

Yeah, that's right biatches. I am an iron man now. I can smell the jealousy through my key board. You want it. You know you do!

Anyway, back to poker. I wound up playing 25NL last night even though I was way to tired. Or, more correctly, because I was tired and I wanted to get my points quickly.
The kids were with my finace at Grandma's house shooting of fire works when I got home, so I spent some extra time digging. Got a lot done, but damn was I exhasted last night. When I finally to playing after Dom (baby) played an hours worth of pace daddy pace, I really just didn't give a crap. I wound up winning ten bucks in 350 hands, but I really don't think I played well. The session started off like crap, as my first hand that went past the flop was a disaster. Someone donked into me, so I raised it up with overs. They flat and then check a turned A (of course I have AQ), so I check it back with my A to open up their range. They pot the river and I snap it off. Oops. Apparently this fool donks with their sets. Then I lost a couple of pots isoing limpers who hit the part of their hand I wasn't dominating. The session actually turned around on a hand I am not sure of. I opened JJ UTG and faced a 3 bet squeeze from the BB, who had just under 80BB. I decided to flat IP, and they poted a 9 high flop. So I tank and think about it, deciding to call. Then they shove the turn and looking at the size of the pot I just couldn't fold the overpair to an unknown. Showed up with AK and suddenly I was in the posotive. Now that I have the information I like the play, as their are 16 combinations I beat and 18 combinations I don't, so overall once I get to the flop I should be calling down. I really think I should have folded pre-flop though with so little info. But hey, I get the notes and the money, so I won't be regretting the decision.

The only down side was taking notes. I really think to really crush rush you need to take solid notes. So, I spent the next 2 hours drinking beer and taking notes. I saw a lot of exploitahbility, and one player in particular had some interesting lines. This player check raised twice that I saw as the PFA. One time they probably didn't win much more, but on another hand they got a pretty good amount without showing down. Going to keep an eye on that one as I am exploring new lines. A couple of my bigger pots were in situations that would make 2P2 cringe as I went into check call mode with pretty strong hands in some spots. Overall I think it will be good. People just aren't calling down for big pots with 1 pair anymore, so its time to think of ways to get that medium pot on a more consistent basis, and frankly betting isn't going to do that.

Digging, blowing stuff up fighting and poker, oh my

So I got home yesterday and started digging. Got done, took a shower and ate dinner. Took the kids to the fire works stand and blew sfuff up. So it's now 10:20 and I am trying to play rush while feeding and rocking a baby who really doesn't want to go to sleep even though he's dead tired. And my fiance starts talking to me about something. That obviously didn't go well for me, as now I am rocking a crying baby, playing poker and getting yelled at because I don't need to use that tone of voice with her. So of course I go off, as I am tired from working all day then digging, stressed from dealing with a fussy baby and trying to get some hands in so I can get the iron man bonus. She is a very smart woman most of the time, but for some reason she just doesn't understand that I can't have in depth conversations while playing poker.

On the other hand, I wound up winning 2 and a half buy ins, which puts my on a rather nice upswing since I stopped all the FPS crap. I think I screwed up in 2 spots, 1 in calling a large river bet when a flush completed and another in bluffing 2 streets (although it worked). I feel really good about the session because I only got paid off on one monster (more to come on that later). Most of the money came from catching shorties bluffing with mid pocket pairs or overcards. I also started trying some new lines. After all, why am I c-betting a dry flop with an overpair against a player who folds to a lot of C-bets again?

The session actually started out pretty crazy. I got 3 bet in 4 out of my first 6 opens, so I wound up playing a pretty tight post flop style last night. I was flatting a lot of my big pairs to opens and it worked out pretty well. Yeah, I had to dump KK once to an A high MW pot, but overall I made much more on my pocket pairs than I would have by 3 betting. Plus I got into a SWEET spot by flatting my AA. An overly LAG (but not aggro tard) player opened UTG. I flat this cause I think 3 betting gets to many folds and I think I can get 2 bets by flatting a lot of the time. So I start praying for a squeeze, which came. The initial raiser called, and I back raised. The squeezer shoved for 125BB, and suddenly I finally run my AA into someone elses KK. I probably would have gotten all the money anyway, but I really liked the play anyway. The victim probably thinks I am a donk, but I got the money.

I am probably going to try 25NL tonight as long as I'm not to tired, and start using 10NL as my tired/goofing around area. Hopefully this doesn't queue the doomswitch back on.

Dropping the suck out on the FISHIES!

When I got home last night I spent an hour and a half digging a pit (I am building a sand pit for a jungle gym for the kids) by the time I finally got around to playing poker to stay on track for Iron Man I was exahsted. I knew it was going to be a long session when I threw away 30BB with QQ in a 3 bet pot. I don't mind calling the shorties shove, but I was upset at myself for falling for the pre-flop raisors trap. A little later I got set under set, and my session was looking like another toilet bowl session. Then an amazing thing happened. First, I played the hand like crap. I got my KK 3 bet by a shortie and that was flatted by a 70BB stack. As soon as I 3x'd the 3 bet I knew I made a mistake. I should have adjusted my raise size so I could shove over the cold caller, but I didn't. So the flop comes J high, and of course the 70BB stack has JJ. Shorty of course has AA. And the turn is a beautiful K. It always feels good to suck out on the fishies!

Anyway, after that the session went well. I wound up winning a buy in and shutting it down. It felt pretty good knowing that even with my C game I can still grind out a break even session (which is what it would have been if I hadn't sucked out) even with a stack sized cooler in a 500 hand session. I have to say it does feel wierd to play an ABC game again. I finally got around to taking the HH to work, so hopefully I will have notes next week (ya know, when I plan to be playing 25NL - Yeah, I make a lot of sense).

Weekend update

It was a pretty rough weekend. I was sick friday and Saturday, so between that and family, I felt like ground beef. I did manage to get my sessions in to get Iron Man status this month, so that was good. Friday didn't go so well. I wound up down a small amount, but I really only feel bad about 1 hand (I bluffed $2 instead of $1.4). Saturday was really good. I won 2 and a half buy ins and played REALLY well. There were a couple of spots where I could have gotten away from hands or value bet a little more, but no complaints. Yesterday I won 3/4 of a buy in. Should have been more, but my stationy tendancies were a bit to strong. Overall things are going well at 10NL rush now. So much so that I decided to see how I was doing overall. Ugh. Still down 8 buy ins, which is pretty attrocious considering I am on a 7 buy in up swing. As long as I keep up the steady pace, I am going to start playing 25NL rush next Thursday, and use 10NL for weekdays and days that I am playing just to get some hands in. This is a pretty large divergance from my poker philosophy, as I have always been a pretty big stickler for winning 20 Buy ins before moving up. But I have a lot of experience playing 25NL and I have been playing very solid since I toned my game down. I will keep playing 10NL at least until I get back to even, just because it will gnaw at me to be a looser overall there.

As for my actual game, it feels really wierd. Taking the philosophy that $ per hour is more important than BB, I have gone back to playing a 15/11 style. There is a larger than average gap between the VPIP/PFR as I prefer post flop play and because I am looking for situations to flat with my bigger hands. 3 bets get way to much respect, so I just feel like crap when I three bet my AA and see a bunch of folds. I did actaully get some one to stack off pre with QQ. My 3 betting has improved greatly though. I never thought I would be one of those chodes 3 betting crap hands, but now that I have started looking for good spots to squeeze/3 bet light, I just can't pass up on good opportunities. I do think when I move up to 25NL I will add a squeeze stat though. It might set up some good spots to back raise.

And finally, I started messing around with Omaha Hi last night. Only played 100 hands (which is a decent amount only running 4 tables) of 2OHI, and won a buy in and a half. I don't know if I'll ever have time to really grind up the stakes, but I kind of want to. OHI hits a lot of my strengths, but also has much higher sustainable win rates and from what I have heard the player pool skill level hasn't increased anywhere near the amount of NL. I really get that, because to be good at OHI not only do you have to be able to adapt to your villans, you really have to understand your hands strength against the villans range and be able to fold pretty strong made hands while raising good draws. Not saying I am anything but a OHI fish, but nothing wrong with adding another game to your arsenal.

rush going well and 3 bet discussion

I have to get 50FPP's every day for the rest of the month to get iron man (which will be the first time ever!) so I am trying to grind it out each night as fast as I can (time isn't a luxury I enjoy). Played 10NL rush, and it went well again. Picked up one and a half buy ins in 700 hands. It was again a lot of small pots and a few medium pots. I 2 biggest pots were 60BB and 40BB. The game is ripe for light 3 betting, but it is a double edged sword, as if you loose 1 big pot it will take FOREVER to win it back. If someone were to sit down and take notes on player tendancies though, it could be brutal. I was actually a little tighter last night as I wasn't on my A game, but it was still a good session. I am definately solidifying my approach to the game, which consists of a lot of bluff catching, occasional 3 betting and bluffs to take pots away.

One of the most interesting aspects of the last two sessions is that I have started to open with the pot button instead of my standard 3X. My C-bet success has increased from around 40% to around 60%. I had always wanted to do a study of the effect of open sizes over a significant sample, and while I realize that my sample sizes are pretty small, I am seriously thinking about 3Xing my monsters and 3.5Xing my more marginal hands. I am also thinking that I need to stop 3 betting AA/KK. At most I get a call fold, but usually I just take down the pot pre-flop. With the 3 bet success rate, it is probably better to bluff more often than value 3 bet.

And finally, I got into a pretty solid set mining discussion at 2P2 yesterday, and I am going to hammer out some numbers in common situations today with JH1, which has me stoked. Their are a lot of situations where I think it is profitable to set mine that most others disagree with, and it will be nice to get some numbers and back and forth going on the subject. I think that I am probably set mining in a few bad spots, but I also think conventional wisdom is causing people to pass up good spots, and I haven't ever seen an actual in depth look at the subject, which really baffles me.

Randomness

So, I think I had my first reader, but who knows? Kinda feel like Happy Harry Hard On, talking into the black, hopeing for another letter from the Eat Me Beat Me lady. And if you get that reference, I have two pieces of news for you. 1) your old. 2) you watch way to much TV.

Not much happened in the way of poker last night. I was tired as hell cause my boy is sick and my fiance is overly worried. We took shifts watching him last night. Nothing really wrong with him. He has a cold and is congested and cranky, but thats gonna happen. I ran some 5NL rush last night just to get points toward Iron man. There were 2 interesting hands. In one I got paid off with flopped quads (Yeah, I can feel your jelousy) and the other one was caused by the poker academy Ferguson challenge. So, I min raised AA in EP (Yeah, thats freaking brilliant)and get 5 callers. Yea, just what you want with AA, a 6 way pot and your OOP on all but one. I was praying for a squeeze, but no luck. So naturally I flop top set on a semi wet board. I lead out for 2/3 pot, and 5 folds. So maybe it wasn't that interesting, but whatever.

As for the actual session, I ran 4 tables tiled. It was the first time I did more than 2, as I was really just trying to get volum in so I could go to bed. My stats dropped down to 15/11, but I had a pretty damn good win rate - just over 12ptBB/100. I was even more impressed as I only had 2 hands where I made more than 40BB - the quads hand and another hand with a set. That hand kinda freaked me out. I usually close a table once I get 150BB deep, but in that particular hand I was 300BB deep with an aggro player and 280BB deep with a station. I floped bottom set with 44, and the aggro villan slightly overbets the pot. Station calls, and I call. The turn really made me nervous though, as the aggro villan lead for pot again and the station called on a J high board with a few straight possabilities. Now I am getting all sorts of nervous. The river comes and the aggro villan fires 2/3 pot. The station folds, and I flat. I thought about raising, but if I did I don't think I could fold to a raise, but we still had just over 200BB behind. Anyway, villan had TPTK, and I wound up winning a nice sized pot. I am going to have to make sure I don't get that deep again though. I am just not comfortable playing that deep.

I finally finished the rush video after that, and the instructor talked about how he would pass up small edges that might come up (for instance, he quick folded 56o on the button)to look for bigger edges instead of waisting time waiting. His thinking is that he didn't care about bb/100 as much as he cared about $ per hour. Sometimes people say something so blatently obvious that you feel like a tard after reading it. Yeah, hubris wants to have the best win rate of anyone ever, but who really gives a crap? I'm a greedy bastard. Screw the glory and fame, PAY ME! Who knows if it will work or not, but it is yet another philisophical change to my approach to rush. Anyway, I think I am going try this new approach at 10NL tonight, but stacking 4 tables instead of tiling. See how it goes.

Different day, different results

Last night was one of those nights that just makes you smile. I played for maybe half an hour at the 25NL regular tables (you know, the ones I swore I would play as much as possible) last night and lost twenty bucks. Not really sweating the losses, as they were to cracked aces and TPTK against a 40BB stacker. Then the girls came home and Dom was fussy cause of a likely ear infection, so I switched back to 10NL rush just trying to get some iron man points. And I finally had a solid winning session. Won 2 and a half buy ins, which is pretty huge. I still ran like crap overall, but I did suck out once hitting a set against AA and I would up on the good side of a cooler. I don't feel bad about the cooler either. The player was a freaking idiot. We both had QJ and the flop came down T9K. I check raise the flop. Turn is an A giving me backdoor flush draw and I lead out. Dude flats my bet and I hit my flush on the river. So I bet pot again and the villan shoves. I have significantly reduced the number of hands I play, reduced the amount of C-betting (my success rate is in the low 30's), and I have started bluff catching a little more. Don't know if it will work in the long term, but it did last night. The one thing that continues to confound me is the massive overbet shoving. Still waiting to have a hand when I see it, but I saw it maybe a dozen times last night in various situations.

And I started watching the CR video series on rush. I haven't finished the first video yet, but its about time someone put an in depth look into this format. I am honestly suprised it took this long. The format is just to perfect for the casual player, and I think it will increase the ratio of fish to sharks as the sharks are really only playing 4 tables now instead of 16. So far I got some good tips. Seems like the best winners are all playing pretty TAG 12/10 styles. I ran 16/11 last night, so I cut down on some of my stealing. I also started using 3.5X opens most of the time. I am pretty firmly in the 3x open or 4/3/2.5 by position open camp, as I prefer a higher SPR and the ability to call 3 bets some of the time, but the point was made that why not bloat the size of the pot against the fish that are calling your raise with hands you often dominate. The extra value from fish will cover the loss of edge against worse regs. He also talked about the ability to fold big hands and how most regs are playing their monsters pretty face up. That would probably help, but I think I removed my fold button. Anyway, half a video in and I have already changed 2 aspects of my game. Can't wait to see all of it!

Catching up

Its been a while, so lets start with the real life stuff. Turned 34 last week, and had a great B-day. The girls were so damn cute, and I can't wait to use the water guns they got me. Got a tootsie pop t shirt for fathers day, which is good cause I am running low on good T-shirts. I think its part of my fiance's plan to replace all my snarky T-shirts with more father appropraite shirts (as if I would allow that to happen!) but who cares. I am the only person I know who has actually figured out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop - 176. And yes, guard duty in the desert is just that boring.

On the poker front, I am no longer playing rush. Well, I am playing 5NL when I don't want to think to work on FT academy. I had started the week doing OK, but then I had another spiral on Friday. Lost 4 buy ins. Most of it was just coolers, but so far I am never on the winning end of coolers in 10NL, and frankly, I can make a lot more money at the regular tables.

I watched a lot of video's last week, and their was something really interesting in a leakfinder vid. I have long been a proponent of high card value being much more important than suitedness and connectedness. In a leakfinder video of a 6 max nit, it really amazed me, but apparently nits are more likely to steal with SC's than with broadway cards, which is completely backwards when it comes to value. It kind of makes sense if you think about it. Nits are generally scared poker players, and the fear of domination gets them to fold mediium broadway hands. Which really makes some of my BVB hands make a little more sense.

And on my poker front, I had a pretty damn good weekend. After giving up on Rush, I moved back to the 25NL reg tables, and wow has my game changed in the last month. First, I changed my table selection. Due to my lack of hands at FT and being behind in note taking, I don't have many players marked. In the past I just went to tables with the highest VPIP. Now I am looking for tables with 3 players or more who have less than a full stack, and I had pretty damn good luck. I had a 4 buy in win session in 1K hands on the first day and a 1 1/2 buy in on another session of 1K hands. That doesn't sound that great, but considering I lost 3 stacks in coolers and my goal is 1 stack per 1K hands, I am more than happy with my results.

As for how my play has changed, I am now running 21/17 with a 5-7% 3 bet. It has been really strange to see good spots to 3 bet or squeeze light, and I have even successfully 4 bet bluffed a couple of times. I didn't get myself in trouble once this weekend running a bluff as I was able to cut my losses when the situation demanded it. It is such a chage from the last time I played 25NL in February, when I was pretty much a tag. The new style has more variance, but in much more frequent amounts and in smaller increments, so the overall effect is actually lower variance. I am winning at 3PTBB/100 over the last 7K hands, but this weekend it was closer to 12, which is astounding and probably unattainable. But hey, nothing beats running like crap at the lower limit and hot at the higher limit right?

25nl reminds me that I'm not gods gift to poker

So, I actually got a chance to sit down and play a solid session of 25NL last night. Played about 2K hands, and basically played break even poker except for 3 coolers, so I wound up down 3 buy ins. Overall I am happy with my play, but I think I probably set mined OOP in a couple of spots that I shouldn't have. I missed all my set mining, with the exception of 2 coolers set under set, which is a brutal way to go through a session. I also think I have swung a little far into the LAG realm. It is rather interesting to see a plus EV spot, but also look back at it and realize that while it is plus EV, your not good enough to pull it off. On the whole though, I think the humility is good in the long run. Makes you want to work harder to get the money back!