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?