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!

25 NL and the academy

So, I played a very few hands of regular 25NL last night, and it went well. I lost a buy in overplaying AKs in a situations where I was 4 bet folding. I got flatted and thought hey, maybe I can take it away on the flop. Yeah, that worked. So yeah, its not all sunshine and roses as I increase the 3 bet/4 bet dynamics, but thats OK. I pulled off my first 4 bet bluff at 25NL and am generally getting a feel for player types and situations where you can 3 bet light profitably. I played a little less than 300 hands, lost a full buy in, and still managed to come out up half a buy in. The swings in session with this new style are greater, but overall the swings are less, and over the admittidely small sample I am winning at just over 8ptBB/100 through 3.5K hands, which has me really stoked. I actually expect to play better in the future as I am, for the first time, making a concerted effort to both mark players and to take notes.

And on the you should read the fine print front, I had always thought FT academy was kind of retarded. I mean, if your really serious about improving your game, your not going to get that through some 10 minute sessions at FT. So, I heard some people at 2P2 talking about the free money, and finally looked into it. Seems like good value, but damn, some of those things are just dumb. I did the Ferguson in 500 5NL rush hands, but really? You want to encourage people to min raise premium hands in EP, 2.5 in MP, and 3x in LP for a cash game? This is good advice for a beginner? Still, free money is free money, and my bankroll can use the padding where ever I can get it.

Blah

So, I spent the weekend playing rush again. Well, spent the weekend is pretty strong. I played a little bit when I had time. And I did well until last night, but I will be trying to get away from it. In order to make money you need to steal and take pots away. Getting post flop value for me is very difficult when I actually have a hand. I have started 3 betting light in a bunch of different situations and it has worked well. I have started trying to take pots away (with varied results, but overall it has been posotive). The problem is that I am somewhat of a showdown monkey and when you make a mistake for a stack, it takes forever to get that buy in back. When you make a few call downs like I did last night, you can loose days worth of work. I swear to god you see more damn sets and random straights, and really its my own damn fault. If someone is trying to build a big pot, they have a freaking set or better pretty much every single time. And I know this. The problem is that I am doing so much shady crap taking pots away that I convince myself everyone else is to (helpful hint: their not). Its all the more frustrating because I don't think it plays to my particular skill set very well, but 90% of the time its rush or nothing, which is frustrating in and of itself. So, after last nights debacle, I am down 2 buy ins playing 10NL rush. Although I checked the sessions tab before I started last night, and I was 6 buy ins below EV (and I am probably 8 below now) so I know its profitable. And, honestly if I would have folded when I thought I was behind last night, I would have had a winning sessions. So, I can blame variance as much as I want, but the truth is its my own damn fault for not following my instincts. Whine over.

10NL Rush is trying to crush my soul

So my fiance was sick last night, and we shipped the kids off to the grandparents for the night. I was going to play some 25NL, but by the time I got the computer fired up I was tired and the finals were going, so I decided to do rush instead. I really don't know what it is, but I started off the session dropping 2 buy ins. One of the stacks was questionable, I had TPTK on a mono board, and C-bet and the villan shoved all in. I probably should have folded, but I really thoght they had a worse A with a redraw, so I called. Nope. They had a set. The rest was just a slow leak as every time I got a hand I got folds, and every time I missed the flop they hit or made a move. I was able to win it all back, and wound up half a buy in, so at least I know I can beat it.

Perhaps this also illistrates another problem. I have been relatively spoiled for the last 6 months. Before I was moving up levels as my skills were increasing, so I was always learning new things against better compatition. But since loosing my bankroll and starting over at 2NL again meant that while I was improving my game, the compatition was not getting better. As such I had monster win rates and relatively low variance for a while now. Even 25NL seems much easier now than it did 6 months ago, although that might have more to do with good table selection and small sample sizes as much as improved skills. Any which way you look at it, 10NL is really trying my patience. I still like the rush format, and really think it is going to be a huge piece of the future, but so far it has been a pain.

So, enough with the whining. I sitll have a 2.5BB win rate over the last 2K hands, and without rakeback I am still making $10 an hour this month, which is a great confidence booster for the not so far off future where poker is going to be a part time job.

Rush

I have started playing Rush poker at nights while my baby is sleeping on my lap. In one way its perfect, as I can stop in an instant without really loosing any value. I still think I play much better at regular tables, but I can't really do that when I might have to stop playing in an instant (like last night, when Dom decided to wake up by projectiling on me - let me tell ya, theirs nothing more fun than having KK and getting covered with spit up at the same time).

Anyway, I can annahilate 5NL to the tune of 15BB/100, but I have had a hell of a time at 10NL rush. I run into more damn sets and coolers, but I also think I get a case of FPS syndrome when playing. Last night I started off dropping 2 buy ins, but I really should have only lost half of a buy in. I don't mind loosing money when making plays or trying new lines, but I really hate it when I C-bet in a 3 bet pot with QQ on a K high board and get shoved on by that 80BB stack, tell myself he has AK and thats life, then hit the damn call button instead of the fold button. Or to call the 4 bet shove from a 50BB stack with A6. On the plus side, after dropping the 2 buy ins, I settled down and started playing smart poker instead of F you poker, and wound up winning a buy in.

I actually think the difference between my A game and my C game is simply that I follow my reads more on my A game. I have always had a showdown oriented style of play (Usually around 30%) which has always worked well for me as I am able to value bet pretty thin in many situations. Recently I have been trying to expand my game to start taking down pots without a showdown (I mean, if I know they will call two half pot bets, but fold to 2 larger bets, why not try to take away the pot with 2 lager bets when I don't have show down value, right?) which has added a lot more variance during a session, but has also allowed my to have breakeven or even posotive sessions when I run into a couple of coolers. The last couple of sessions I have had 3 bet percents over 4% (more than twice what I typically do) and have had really good results. Seems counterintuitive that I 3 bet more but seem to get more respect - but thats probably more the small sample size and my extra attention to the light 3 bets.

Anyway, it going pretty well this month. Already up over a hundred without rakeback, which is an increase of around 15% to my bankroll. It's really nice to be playing again and seeing the bankroll growing, and at this rate I might be taking 50NL shots by the end of next month, which is both exciting and scary as I only have about 3K hands back at 25NL. I will take shots no matter what once I get the bankroll though. Life and time are running to short for me to wait for comfort.

Getting started

Well, I have been wanting to start a poker blog for a while now. Mostly its to have something to look back on and share my thoughts/rants/journey of an attempt to become a professional poker player.

A quick history - My family played every kind of card game you can imagine. I wasn't great at reading people, but I was great at figuring out the odds as I was always mathematically inclined. So, about 5 years ago I found out about party poker, deposited some cash, played $1 tourneys when I was drunk, and promptly forgot about poker when they pulled out of the US. About 3 years ago I moved back to Kansas for a job and to start building a life that wasn't centered around drinking and girls. Got a good job in a place with no party freinds. It was all good, but I was kinda bored, so I deposited at Tilt. I played micro tourneys and lost a little. Found Harrington on hold em, and suddenly I was a slight winner. Found poker tracker, and I was able to play two whole tables at a time! Then one day, I decided to try cash games. Started with 6 max, and that didn't go so well. I was a slight winner at 2 and 5NL, but the retarded levels of aggression tilted the crap outta me, so I moved back to tourneys, switching to the 9 man SNG's at stars (I found out about VPPs!). I was only making like ten cents an hour, but it was fun.

Then I moved to full ring 2NL. Suddenly, I was making a consistent profit and building my roll. I bought a new monitor and was playing 4 tables. I started reading 2P2, and was well on my way, eventually getting to 25NL with a decent win rate when I discovered the CainisAbel blog and mass tabling. HOLY CRAP! Here was someone playing 100NL and making a great living. I wanted to do that, so I started over at 2NL running 12 tables, and eventually got to the point where I could run 20 tables easily. Built my roll back up and got to take a shot at 50NL (that didn't go so well). Anyway, I was making some good money, and everything was going great. Bought my fiance here engagement ring and paid for a vacation with poker winnings. Then the water heater broke, and suddently my roll was decimated. My finace was on bed rest at the time due to pregnancy complications, so I moved to tilt (rakeback rocks) and started playing in bed with her at night. Things were going well, and I built a roll for 10NL and was working some prop bets to help pad the roll. Then the baby came. So tired. No time. No poker for 4 months.

I am now playing poker regularly again. Built my roll back up and I am again playing 25NL. I was a little rusty, but my game is getting much better. Apparetnly playing rush turned me into a LAG (or just gave me the confidence to steal more) and things are going well. I was up 4 and a half buy ins through 2K hands until last night, which was both a nightmare and very encouraging. I had an attrocious run with AA and KK. I had KK 7 times. 3 times I took down the blinds. 1 I won 25BB. And 3 times I ran into AA and I wound up loosing 2 buy ins (gotta love people for not buying in full). AA wasn't much better. I lost a stack to KK AIPF and ran AA into AA another time. Wound up only making $5 with AA overall. And I wound up even on the session! I honestly think I only missplayed a couple of hands the entire session, which is pretty damn good for me. I have been experimenting with squeeze plays, light 3 betting, and taking pots away with hand reading (I am a decent hand reader in general, but until recently I always used that to thin value bet instead of trying to take pots away). So, yeah, overall today I am variances bitch, but in a pretty good mood because even 6 months ago that would have been a train wrech of a session.

More to come later