Box O Rocks

EuroRounders

2007-09-10T13:00:00.001-04:00

♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣ ♥ ♠ ◊ ♣
EuroRounders
written by Saddlepoint <http://saddlepoint.livejournal.com/7844.html> .
♣ ♣
Michel (voiceover): "If you can't find the boorish American hold'em player at the table within half an hour, you are the boorish American hold'em player."
♣
TITLE/CREDITS. This entire movie is in black and white, with subtitles.
♣
Michel (voiceover): "This game is really scummy, and well above what I can afford to play. My entire bankroll is riding on this one session going well. This is Teddy CIA's place, where they only play Pot Limit Omaha, the most sophisticated game in Europe."
◊ ◊ ◊ Michel knocks on the window ◊
Teddy CIA: "You want poker, or whore?"
Michel: "Poker. Give me three stacks of high, elitist society."
Michel: "I raise."
Teddy CIA: "It's a position raise. I call."
◊ ◊ ◊ The flop comes 5-7-A, with two diamonds ◊
Michel: "I bet the pot."
Teddy CIA: "I raise the pot."
Michel: "I reraise the pot."
Teddy CIA: "I reraise the pot."
Michel: "Pot."
Teddy CIA: "Pot."
Michel: "Pot."
Teddy CIA: "Pot."
Michel: "Pot."
Teddy CIA: "Pot."
Michel (voiceover): "I sit back and think. I have three aces - the best possible hand. I want him to think I'm debating a call, but really I'm just thinking about Monte Carlo, and whatever the fuck is in Monte Carlo."
Michel: *shrugs* "Okay, well, I re-pot it, I'm all in, because I don't think you have a pair." *winks at the camera*
Teddy CIA: "Who are you winking at? It doesn't matter, I call."
Michel (voiceover): "I know before he even says it."
Teddy CIA: "I have 8-6-4-3 with two diamonds, for a wrap straight draw and a flush draw, which is a favorite over your top set."
◊ ◊ ◊ Turn is a King. River is a 2 which gives Teddy CIA an ace-to-five straight for the win. Michel sits there, shell-shocked. ◊
Joey Croissant: "Come on, I'll get you a whore."
♣
Michel (voiceover): "Well, that sucked. Since then, I've sworn off of poker and made my living as a roadside prostitute for boorish American tourists. Hopefully, I can pay my way through law school that way. I can always find games, though. I could turn this truck onto the road and be at the Taj in 19 and a half hours."
♣
Michel (voiceover): "I'm here to pick my friend Worm up from prison."
◊ ◊ ◊ Worm walks out of prison ◊
Michel: "Worm! It's wonderful to see you!"
◊ ◊ ◊ They kiss each other passionately on the mouth ◊
Michel: "How was prison?"
Worm: "I was brutally sodomized on a regular basis."
♣
Michel: "Look...Croissant, I never told you this, but about a year ago, I was playing poker at the Casino des Atlantes, and Marcel Luske walks in. He sits down at the 50/100 pot limit game. And, I mean, the whole place stops, right? Just watching this guy play. After a while there isn't a retarded European gambling game going, because everybody's just, you know, watching this guy."
◊ ◊ ◊ Joey Croissant nods ◊
Michel: "So you know what I did? I sat down."
Joey Croissant: "No way, you need at least 300,000 euros to sit down at a game like that. Such bad financial management is typical of a boorish American!"
◊ ◊ ◊ Joey Croissant and Michel laugh for twenty-six minutes ◊
Michel: "Right, okay, but seriously, I played for an hour, doing nothing but folding. Then I won a huge pot."
Joey Croissant: "Aces? Kings? Ace-King doublesuited? Suited aces? High connectors? Middle doublesuited connectors? Two big pair?"
Michel: "Rags."
Joey Croissant: "That's probably fine too, you're only like a 48/52 dog."
Michel: "I raised. And he came over the top of me, like I was a boorish American. I re-popped it. He potted it again. I think for like two seconds and then I re-pot it."
Joey Croissant: "Jesus fucking Christ, how much money did you have?"
Michel: "After I bet I would quietly slide my chips back toward my stack, nobody noticed. Anyway, he thinks for a while, looks at me, checks his cards again, and he mucks. I take it down. And then he looks at me and says, 'I have to know. Did you have it?' And I said, 'I'm sorry Marcel, I can't remember.'"
Joey Croissant: "Face!"
Michel: "I know, totally. Anyway, based on that one hand, I felt confident gambling for all the money I had, at one time."
♣
Law Professor: "I am a Jew."
Michel: "I hate you."
♣
Teddy CIA: "We play, heads up, Pot Limit Omaha, 25 and 50 blinds, until one of us has it all?"
Michel: "Out of sheer curiosity, you realize you're giving up like boat loads of equity by agreeing to gamble for money that's effectively yours anyway, right? That you could just not let me play, and then kill me and take what I have?"
Teddy CIA: "I know, but I am a boorish American!"
◊ ◊ ◊ Michel and Teddy CIA laugh for seventy-two minutes ◊
♣
Michel (voiceover): "I pick up Ace-Ace-Jack-Ten doublesuited."
Michel: "I raise the pot."
Teddy CIA: "Very aggressive. But, I reraise the pot."
Michael (voiceover): "He's representing Ace-Ace-King-King doublesuited, the only hand better than mine. I can't call, and give him a chance to catch. I can only fold...if I believe him."
Michel: "I reraise, I'm all in."
Teddy CIA: "Take it down."
♣
◊ ◊ ◊ The flop reads 10-9-5, with two spades ◊
Michel: "Pot."
Teddy CIA: "Pot."
Michel: "Pot."
Teddy CIA: "Pot."
Michel: "Pot."
Teddy CIA: "Pot."
Michel: "Pot. I'm all in."
Teddy CIA: "Alright, I call. What do you have?"
Michel: "Jack high flush draw and middle set."
Teddy CIA: "Wrap, with a king high flush draw."
Michel: "Boy, I sure hope my 5:4 edge holds up, otherwise I am going to die."
◊ ◊ ◊ Turn is an off-suit 5, giving Michel an unbeatable hand. But the river is the ace of spades anyway, because it's always the fucking ace of spades. ◊
Teddy CIA: "He beat me. Pay that man his money. His silly, silly-looking European money."
♣
Cab Driver: "Where are you off to?"
Michel: "Monte Carlo."
Cab Driver: "Good luck."
Michel: "Shut the fuck up."
♣
FIN

I can't afford your game, man

2007-08-02T10:09:00.001-04:00

I went to the car wash yesterday, and the guy hooked me up with a $22
wash for $13. I said thanks, and tipped the fella $2.
He notices one of my poker books on the seat, "So, you learning the
game?"
Sly smile, "Yeah, a little bit."
"Well, when you're ready to step up, I can show you a game downtown."
"Yeah?" I'm always happy to know of another game.
"Yeah, the guys play big time!"
Cool! "Really, what's the limit?"
"Well, the buy in is $20..."
...
...
"So, cleaning the rims is included in the price, right?"

... in the likely case that I take everyone's $ there, I still have to
pay for gas to get there.

22 hour home tournament concept

2007-08-01T16:10:00.001-04:00

How about 30 players, $200 buyin, with (rotating) dealers provided?
Different houses? A structure worthy of 22+ hours of play in a weekend?
8pm to 2am Friday (6 hours)
1pm start Saturday (12 hours)
1pm start Sunday (6 hours)

$3300 first
$1500 second
$700 third
$500 fourth

Level structure: 24 hours less (3 20 min breaks and 30 min food) 1.5 =
22.5 hours of poker fun! 90 minute levels
1 - $25-$50
2 - $50-$100
3 - $75-$150
4 - $100-$200
5 - $150-$300
6 $25 $150-$300
7 $25 $200-$400
8 $50 $300-$600
9 $50 $400-$800
Remove $25 Chips
10 $100 $400-$800
11 $100 $500-$1,000
12 $200 $600-$1,200
13 $200 $800-$1,600
14 $200 $1,000-$2,000
15 $300 $1,200-$2,400 (22 hours!)
16 $400 $1,500-$3,000
Remove $100 Chips
17 $500 $2,000-$4,000
18 $500 $2,500-$5,000
Remove $500 Chips
1 $1,000 $3,000-$6,000

operating costs? Dealer cost avg $20 per hour? - we need 45
dealer-hours; $900 / 30 is $30. hmmm..Food? Refreshments? $200+$30?
Adjustment for dealer tips? Side cash games? (if a dealer stays for
that, tips go in a pool to be shared.)

Starting chips by formula:
Starting chips = M25/starting players
Reasoning:
End game situations will start with average chipstack M12.5 times 2
players = 25M total available chips @ heads up
Structure at end game is level 15
15 $300 $1,200-$2,400
1 M = $4200.
Total chips = 25*4200 = $105000 / 30 players is $3500 starting. (I'm
guessing that more starting chips could be used because loose play early
will knock out more players)

Starting with M40 stacks
Assuming 24-30 hands per hour from dealers means 40 hands per level, so
this would be the most skill weighted blind structure I've ever played.
We're talking 600 hands.

Starting chips - modified M15 stacks:
Level-Morbit:Mcost(Mspent)[hands dealt]
1-75:300(300)[40]
2-150:600(900)[80]
3-225:900(1800)[120]
4-300:1200(3000)[160]
5-450:1800(4800)[200]
6-700:2800(7600)[240]

Off the subject:Payout splits:
Assume headsup:
$3300 first.
$1500 second.
Total pot $4800
Award $1500 to each, pot remaining: $1800
70 - 30 chip distribution flat: 1260-540
weight to shorter stack: 1060-740??

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

2007-07-24T12:15:00.001-04:00

I'm in the small blind, and I've put my $1 in the pot. The cards are
dealt, Blade is first to act, and he bets $20. People start to fold
their cards, Blade is telling them that they can't call.
I have not looked at my cards yet, but I puff up and retort, "I
guarantee I won't call, Blade."
In my mind, I'm either going to raise or fold.
It's my turn.
"I raise, sixty straight." I don't think he can call.
After the player between us folds, Blade makes the $40 call. The total
in the middle is $122.
The flop shows 6 of hearts, 10 of diamonds, Jack of hearts.
"I check."
Blade checks behind me.
Turn, 3 of hearts.
"I check."
Blade stacks up his remaining chips and pushes them forward. Two
hundred and twenty one dollars.
I turn over a card, showing only an Ace of hearts.
Normally I'd do that to watch the reaction of my opponent; does he fear
a call, but I'm not even looking at him.
I believe Blade has two hearts, he's winning, holding a flush.
I should fold instantly, I have to call $221 to win $342, and if I do,
I'll lose 7 out of 8 times.
But I'm not thinking about odds or correct play, I'm thinking a single
heart on the river, overcoming odds, the thrill of victory, a sick
satisfaction of being rewarded for doing something wrong.
A gamble.
It's most of my remaining chips, "I feel a gamble. Call."
I have Ace of hearts and Queen of spades. I need a heart.
Blade shows a 3 Jacks. There is one more heart for me in the deck.
A slightly better chance for luck to smile.
The last card is not a heart; it's Blade who smiles and reaches for the
$563 pot.

One of the worst things in this game is believing you've won, and then
having someone 'slow roll' you; turning their cards over after you think
you've won, savoring defeat on your face as they show you the best hand.

I suppose it's not much different than Blade believing he's won, only to
realize he's misread the situation, slow rolling himself in his mind;
the King of clubs gives me a straight and the win. I've been in his
situation many times, mumbling the mantra, "That's poker."

Ship it.

M · Rogers

2007-06-18T18:02:00.001-04:00

This morning I put it together in a grand unification theory: This one may need a little refinement. However, I'll be shocked if you don't immediately smack your head and say wow, this is no ordinary Box o Rocks.

We all live and breathe Harrington's M. Snyder calls us all idiots and we bristle. Now, Box o Rocks is on the scene and he's worked thru the suffering of these conflicting views. I can confidently say that all of my tournament mistakes this last trip resulted from an incorrect application of M. Here's the good news, and not much of a shock: Dan Harrington's M is correct and valid for all situations. There are modifications for figuring M and Dan writes about M for short handed tables. I will talk about M for impending level changes, and this is the key.

I will say that I feel Snyder's 'bullet/ammunition' theory of chip value is probably a better analogy than Sklansky's 'each chip won is worth less', but I need to reconsider both theories further before I address the issue of chip values.

M is a number that roughly represents the number of rounds you can survive before you go broke. Simply, M is your stack divided by the sum of blinds and antes. We know that M must be recalculated every time the level advances. I suspect that most of us have even gone to the next step of determining our M based on an impending level change. But this modification is not enough.

M for number of rounds before you're broke is fine and usually valid for hour long rounds that are present in higher dollar value tournaments. If there's 10 minutes remaining of an hour long level, and the blinds have just past, most people will refigure M base on the next level values. You probably see where I'm going with this, don't you?

Consider the following common situation: Levels are 15 minutes, but antes have not started yet. The blinds double from here on with aggressive antes. You fold 72off in early middle position. 3 tables remain, and you check your M at 13. You study a fellow who's called all-in and you eventually call time on a third potential caller. The third caller does call with 99, and the original AI shows KK. Your read on the first caller was correct: He was weak, but this is ridiculous: J♥6♥? The board shows 6 7 4 7 6, and two people are eliminated. As J♥6♥ sheepishly rakes the pot, you correctly ignore the fact that you would have eliminated all 3 opponents with great chip position if only you were temporarily gifted with an IQ of 57. Now you fold K♣3♣ UTG on a table with 6 other fairly timid opponents. The buzzer sounds for the next level as the BB shows a walk with T♦2♠. You call for the floor, but he refuses to balance the tables since the opponents are dropping very fast.

On the next orbit, UTG, you fold 92off, affectionately nicknamed the "s#!+ milkshake" by a fellow named William. Finally, the tables combine to 2. The buzzer sounds again for a short break, and you lose the chip race. No problem, it's only a single ante. When you return from break, you see a much shorter stack. You recount your M at 2.5. How did this happen? The dealer tells you he colored up your chips. You think for a moment, and realize you weren't robbed. You post your blind, you see A♠, and push in without a glance at your 2nd hole card. Your opponent flops a boat, board K2K. You rap your bare patch of felt, smile, and congratulate the table. You head to the counter to queue for a juicy cash game, and consider what you might have done to improve your play; did you miss a steal opportunity or misread strength when your opponent made a move? What is it that the pros know, that you don't? As you're seated, you see your old pal J♥6♥ has made the money. Good for him. Sure, this is J♥6♥'s birthday, but this is ridiculous. Hopefully he'll take his chances over here at the cash game.

Do you see it yet? You should have figured your M at much less a couple of rounds ago. M is supposed to tell you how many rounds you can survive, but nobody told you to consider that the level can change twice in a single orbit. This is the missing link. M has to be considered for not only an immediate level change but all impending level changes that will affect the 'tail end' of your real M. I'll call it MR. M12 based on level X can realistically mean 1 orbit at level X, 2 orbits at level X+1 and 1/2 orbit at level X+2. Now, M12 in this situation = MR3.5 and K♣3♣ UTG on a table with 6 other fairly timid opponents = push.

A good, rapid dealer can run about 30 and 35 hands per hour and automatic shuffling machines can speed the process up to about 40 to 45 hands per hour. A typical online poker game deals between 65 and 85 hands per hour. A self-dealt game with inexperienced players can crawl at 18-25 hands per hour.

I believe that Mr. Harrington's M is based on 1 hour blinds with a speed of 30 hands per hour. I establish a baseline of 30 hands per blind level. M1 assumes one orbit of 10 players (B+A)

Consider an M10 on a blind schedule that doubles. 1/3rd should be based on the current level, 1/3rd based on the next, and the remainder on the level after. Your effective M10 -- 3M·1(current level)+3M·1/2(next level)+4M·1/4(level after)+1M·1/8 -- MR5.35 You think you have 'time', and you're playing Dan's recommended 'zones', but you're not. You're much worse off that you think you are.

If you have an online tournament with 30 minute levels, then you can expect to see 35 hands per level; (70hph) You're better off, even though you have less time. You'll see 16.6% more hands, so you can slow down your M erosion that much: Roughly, M10+16.66%=M11.66 -- M3.5·1+3.5M·1/2+3.5M·1/4+1.16M·1/8 -- MR6.2 (the level consideration stretches because you lose more M per level, but you see more hands, so your have more M to eat up)

How about a home game with 18hph and 20 minute rounds? 6 hands per level. You're seeing only 20% of number of hands that Dan was considering when he wrote his book. Now what's your M10 worth? Well, you'll lose less M per level; only .6 per level. M10·20%=M2 -- .6M·1+.6M·1/2+.6M·1/4+.2M·1/8 -- MR1.075. An M10 to a dead zone wisp.

If you mentally think about tournament game structures, you'll see that this concept is even closer to the truth.

How does that change your play considerations? Kick in antes, and you have blown M to smithereens. No wonder so many tournament that we play are crapshoots.

I thought of this today, June 18th, 2007. Me. If not, I want to see where someone wrote it first.

Kid Before Christmas

2007-05-29T17:25:00.001-04:00

I'm going to Vegas! I'm going to Vegas!

I just realized that this Friday is the 1st of June. My flight leaves
June 12th. I'm excited!

The one thing that bugs me so much is that I might donk out hour 1, day
1. That is so terrifying to me. I need to seek help to calm my nerves
on that issue.

Yay me!

WSOP 2007 in Vegas!

2007-05-07T09:25:00.000-04:00

Well, I've managed to wander into part of my dream. I'm going to the WSOP 2007 baby!

Here are my choices:
No-Limit Hold’em $2,000 No Rebuy/Add-ons
Wed, June 6th to Fri, June 8th (Event 10)
Fri, June 15th to Sun, June 17th (Event 25)
Fri, June 29th Sun, July 1st No Rebuy/Add-ons (Event 47)

I'm playing as a rep from a group; 60% of whatever I win is mine.

Here's what I have to manage:
Play your big draws more aggressively. The money won't go in after the draw hits, especially a flush draw.
Think about timing when acting. Act the same time every time.
Look at cards on your action after you think about your position and situation everytime.
Notice your head position when you're strong and when you're weak. Figure your observation position; where you hold your head and bodyand act from that position everytime.
Work on moving out of your comfort zone when bluffing.

Here's the commentary from the qualifier:
Final match, Game 2, Friday, 5/4, $240 buy-in
10 players, winner got to select one of 3 WSOP events in Vegas ($2,000 buy-in + $660 in travel expenses). Events are # 10, 25, 47 (June 6, 15, 29) and each are 3-day tournaments.

Everybody played well and hard. B's solid play had her with a dominating chip lead at the half-way point. By the time she was heads up with Doug, she had at least a 2 to 1 chip advantage. Doug fought hard and played well to take it all down. CONGRATS DOUG! We will of course be rooting for him. I will let everyone know which event he has chosen as soon as Doug makes travel/registration plans. Here are the places and percentages for all the players:

1. Doug R. 60%
2. Becky M. 9%
3. Dean B. 7%
4. Michael R. 6%
5. Darnell B. 5%
6. Brad S. 5%
7. Wendy B. 4%
8. Costa 2%
9. Brian S. 1%
10. Al M. 1%

The Rise + Fall of the New York poker room

2007-04-17T12:59:00.001-04:00

From Bluff Magazine:
https://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/2006_08_052.asp
The Rise + Fall of the New York poker room
By: Matthew21v13

I cry easily. From an early age, I learned to avoid physical
confrontation. That night in New York, however, I knew my cowardice was
on a collision course with greed.

I sat at a $5/$10 no-limit table that was groaning under $180,000 in
chips and bricks of $100 bills. I held much of it, but I had no safe way
home.

It was 4:00am. The decent people of New York had long ago abandoned this
lonely side street with its black puddles and cardboard sleeping bags. I
was nervous because, instead of leaving, rounders started showing up.
This meant a lot of people were receiving wake-up calls that a drove of
donkeys were shoving insane amounts of cash in an underground club poker
game. While rounders were jockeying for a seat, shadows were likely
gathering in the alley outside.

Hours earlier, I sat down with my $2,000 buy-in. This was big for me,
but short for the game. I normally play $2/$5. However, I have recently
noticed the only games you can find in Manhattan are $1/$2 baby
no-limits or deep-stack $5/$10 tables.

I was not happy with that evening's line-up, as I was clearly the table
idiot. The other players, who ranged from loose action junkies to rocks,
were all aggressive sharks that had earned the respect of the
underground community.

As I sat down, Anon ogled my rack of chips like they were Courtney
Friel's breasts. He was a former grinder who had taken to playing like a
maniac as his company grew profitable. To his right sat Bob, an affable
real estate tycoon who developed the annoying habit of smirking whenever
he buried puny continuation bets under mountains of black chips.

Charlie lurked in a corner seat. He was a lilywhite all-American boy who
left his prestigious job at a corporate law firm to play cards. His
wife, meanwhile, stayed home, wondering where everything went wrong.
Other rounders - doctors, bankers, computer programmers - gathered
around us, coming and going throughout the night.

I knew them well, but we normally did not all play at the same table. I
was accustomed to seeing a smattering of slack-jawed garlic-eaters
diluting the poker gene pool. But the suckers had vanished. In a city of
8.1 million people, we were part of a dwindling cadre of rounders -
currently only a few dozen - who still played games bigger than $1/$2 in
the underground clubs.

As midnight approached, we started adding columns of black chips to our
stacks without necessarily paying for them beforehand. When someone
suffered a bad beat, or even a well-deserved comeuppance, he would
replace the missing towers.

Soon everyone began to straddle: $25 under the gun, $75 re-straddle,
$200 re-re-straddle. Preflop raises came at $1,000. All this to steal
$15 in blinds. One hand, I looked down to find 10-7 suited, so I
promptly raised the $200 straddle from middle position to $1,000. Anon
called from the big blind. Bob grimaced in pain, he wanted to call so
bad. But he threw away his cards, letting me know that one of the
remaining sevens, and probably a two, were out of play.

When the flop came 6-8-J rainbow, Bob looked disgusted. Okay, he folded
a six. I naturally bet out $1,500. Anon promptly called. I checked
behind him when a king arrived on the turn. An ace fell on the river,
and Anon thought long and hard before checking. "Missed," I grunted as I
started to muck. But the wild look on Anon's face screamed that my 10
high might be good. Reluctantly, I flipped my cards up. And waited.

Anon sat motionless. During this interminable delay, I said a novena.
Both to win the hand and arrive home safe.

My fears sprung not merely from a feverish mind. Underground games in
Manhattan have become enormous, and dangerous.

On Wednesday, May 24, 2006, three men brandishing pistols rushed the
door of a popular underground poker room in Manhattan. Wearing only
sunglasses to mask their identity, they seized control of the room with
the confidence of trained professionals.

This oddly was a relief. Last year, when the current spate of robberies
started, thugs raided a nearby room. They had bigger guns, but
apparently much smaller balls. One of the heavies was shaking so hard
that the club's employees went out of their way to cooperate so that he
would calm down and not accidentally kill someone.

None of the rounders recognized the May 24 robbers as regular players.
Nevertheless, the gunmen cut a beeline to the big game in the back of
the room. Men who robbed poker clubs in New York historically left
players alone and instead focused on the cage. This is where you would
expect to find the money. Instead, this group went directly to the
players at a $5/$10 no-limit game where the average stack was over
$5,000. In menacing but controlled voices, they ordered the players to
empty their pockets.

That this team of gunmen showed up on that particular night has spawned
numerous rumors concerning their ties to the poker community. Because of
the disappearance of many of the city's high-stakes nolimit players, the
underground dens now stagger their games. This ensures that only a few
high-stakes tables compete for players each night. Regulars have grown
familiar with the weekly rotation. The big game at this club, however,
usually formed on Tuesdays. You would have needed a well-informed
insider to know beforehand that a scheduling glitch sited the big game
there that Wednesday.

However they learned about this game, the thieves chose the right time.
They took $60,000 in cash from the nine players sitting at that $5/$10
table. This was in addition to the over $50,000 of chips in play. The
tenth player, who was in the bathroom, cowered on the toilet clutching
$8,500 in cash. He was reportedly the only person that night who did not
crap his pants. With the amount of cash on the tables, it's hardly
surprising that we are in the midst of a robbing spree.

I was instantly awakened back to the $180,000 game when Anon smacked his
palm against the table. He flung his cards face-down towards the dealer.
"I knew it, I should have bet."

I still don't know what he had, but I'm almost sure it must have been
4-7. Anon would have re-raised on the flop with 7-9 and probably moved
all-in on the turn. "Yes, you should have bet your seven-high, and good
call with the gut shot on the flop," I guessed.

Ed could only grin at me in disbelief. Moments like this compelled him
to leave wife and hearth every night.

Sitting on a mountain of chips, I found my out. Even though my instincts
told me to leave, I decided I would play until morning when the
neighborhood came to life.

The game broke at 9:30am, but only because the club rented space in an
office building. Management did not want games running during business
hours. I walked out to the crisp morning air with my sweatstained shirt,
reeking of cigarettes, stress and coffee breath. By that point, however,
I was not worth mugging.

As I weaved my oily corpse past hordes of responsible businessmen in
their fancy suits, smelling of soap and balanced family lives, I sensed
that there were fundamental problems developing in the poker
underground.

The presence of deep-stack games would normally evidence a thriving
poker community. However, the current trend towards disproportionately
large stacks in relation to the blinds is symptomatic of a broader
breakdown in the underground economy.

Traditionally, underground cardrooms occupied a vital role in training
players in expert cash game strategy. Like the old Texas gamblers before
them, many of today's legends honed their skills in these clubs,
particularly in New York City. Case in point: Howard Lederer may now be
the Professor of Poker, but in the 1980s, he was just some homeless guy
sleeping in Washington Square Park after repeatedly losing his entire
bankroll to the city's infamous rounders.

Underground rooms serve an essential role in training the next
generation of players, because casinos do not offer games that allow
poker to be played the way it was intended, unless a player owns a
bankroll to compete at the highest stakes.

Big corporations are too smart to allow players to lose their money
quickly. Their profits flow from keeping players at the table. Casinos
therefore enforce idiotic policies such as Bellagio's $300 maximum
buy-in at the $2/$5 no-limit tables. After a respectable pre-flop raise
and continuation bet, not many players will fold top pair, especially if
they started with just $300. Forget the possibility of pushing anyone
off even the most marginal hands.

Admittedly, many casinos remove caps for their bigger games. No cap
buy-ins are common for $10/$25 or $25/$50 no-limit tables. But if you
are playing these games, you are likely well up on the learning curve
already. Outside of underground rooms, there is no place to learn the
subtleties of the game unless you already have a large bankroll and are
willing to play the biggest games.

Underground rooms used to offer mid-level games with sufficient buy-ins
to allow for tactical maneuvering. Unlike the maximum buy-ins of 60
times to 100 times the big blind that prevail in most casinos, such
rooms permitted players to buy in for at least 200 times.

These games are better for learning advanced plays because they allow
for bluff re-raises and check-raise steals without pot-committing
opponents to calling. Moreover, when playing deep-stack poker, a player
must learn quickly that an overpair is just not that great of a hand
when facing several raises.

Underground clubs also supported a stable group of players who came to
know each other's play in intimate detail. Such a community does not
exist in a casino. This distinction is important because developing
expert no-limit skills requires a player to cultivate a habit of
observing very closely how people play.

It is simply not possible to determine in a few hours the true habits of
other players, other than assigning broad categories such as tight,
loose, aggressive, passive, and maniac. Not enough hands are shown down
in even a ten-hour session to form reliable determinations of how a
player reacts to pressure or what hands he will raise out of position.
This is particularly true if a player is good enough to introduce a
minimal amount of randomness to his play.

Generally speaking, therefore, deep observational skills do not develop
for casino players because the effort required to practice them is not
as crucial as in the underground community. In contrast to casino
players, underground rounders have a greater incentive to develop
reliable kinesic intuition to maintain an edge over a stable population
of competitors over the long-term. The efforts to foster such aptitude,
however, are under-rewarded within the non-iterative environment of
casinos. There, a player can skate along in blissful ignorance without
perceptible disadvantage.

The trick is to foster mid-level games with sufficient buy-ins to allow
for expert play, but to keep the games from growing so big that they
squeeze out mid-level players. Underground rooms historically achieved
this balance. Unfortunately, the dual pressures of police raids and
armed robberies have amputated the poker pyramid. The middle layers
necessary for building experience are vanishing. This threatens a larger
breakdown within the poker community.

This decline all started with a few arrests.

From the 1980s through 2000, law enforcement generally left poker rooms
alone. Two of the most famous from that era, the Diamond Club and The
Mayfair Bridge Club, were famous proving grounds for such legends as
Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, and Dan Harrington. The NYPD, however,
closed the clubs in the summer of 2000 during the Giuliani
administration's law and order campaign.

Underground rooms nevertheless flourished in New York. Up through the
poker boom in 2003, several major clubs established themselves in
Manhattan. The better known included Playstation near Union Square and
Players' Club on the Upper West Side. Significant clubs also sprouted
throughout the city. Despite a few sporadic raids, there was no
concerted crackdown.

Vice squads from the NYPD fired the first salvo in the current campaign
against the underground rooms on "Black Thursday" on May 26, 2005. These
crews shuttered numerous rooms, including Playstation and Players' Club.
The authorities were shocked - shocked - to find gambling in those
establishments, even though Playstation purportedly maintained an alarm
wired directly to the local precinct. Police seized over $100,000 in
cash and arrested dozens of employees.

Although these raids shook the underground poker scene, they still left
its foundation intact. The surviving clubs voluntarily shut down for
weeks, but reopened when the heat died down.

The rounders' outrage over the police crackdown grew so intense that
they staged, in July 2005, a demonstration outside City Hall. Rounders
viewed playing poker as a civil right in light of the history of
underground rooms in New York, the lack of explicit statutory authority
prohibiting such rooms, and even the link between poker, rugged
individualism, and Manifest Destiny.

Indeed, although this legal argument has never previously been raised,
most forms of poker should be legal in New York. Penal Law Section
225.00(2) defines gambling as placing a wager on "the outcome of a
contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or
influence." Under this definition, the police raids themselves are
illegal because most poker games fall outside the ambit of New York's
statutory framework. A player can exercise "influence or control" over
the flop, turn and river cards: he can bet enough so that they never
happen.

The city responded to the rounders' demands on October 14, 2005. At
approximately 11:30pm, police stormed a major club near Chelsea. They
seized over $60,000 in cash. The bust came down on the eve of a $100,000
tournament. The NYPD apparently missed the event because of mistaken
information over its start date.

In January 2006, the NYPD swooped down on the Hudson Club and
Doubletake, the successor to Playstation. Particularly troubling about
these raids was not only their timing - which suggested an accelerating
crackdown on poker rooms - but also the unwarranted hostility displayed
by the cops.

Up to and including the October 2005 raids, police reacted to the
well-behaved order permeating underground rooms by treating the players
with a modicum of respect. After all, it is not illegal to play poker in
New York or frequent underground clubs. Even if Section 225 applied to
poker, it is narrowly directed against owners of gambling establishments
and their employees, and not against players. Reports of the January
2006 raids, however, reveal significant anger against cops who
unnecessarily detained elderly players for hours and required them to
seek permission to go to the bathroom or take prescription medicine.

In May 2006, vice squads raided four of the remaining major clubs in
Manhattan. An unprecedented degree of police hostility accompanied these
arrests. Past raids were spearheaded by officers in windbreakers who
entered the clubs with weapons holstered. During these May 2006 raids,
however, police in body armor stormed the rooms with guns drawn.

In one club, cops forced players to lie down on the floor with their
hands on their heads. Only after some protests did they grant an
exemption to a grandmother who had been playing a low-limit game. In
another raid that same week, they isolated a petrified teenage waitress
and threatened her with jail if she did not rat out the dealers.

This hostility did not always exist. Playstation reportedly had a direct
line to the local precinct, and the Mayfair's employees wore medallions
that summoned police in an emergency. (The Mayfair medallions were
reportedly depicted by the rather ugly white necklace Famke Janssen wore
in Rounders. In the movie, the Chesterfield was the Mayfair.)

Thugs now believe, probably correctly, that underground rooms cannot
rely on cops for help during an emergency. Accordingly, an unforeseen
consequence of the increasingly hostile police raids is that they have
encouraged robberies. Together, these two factors have distorted the
fundamental economy of the underground rooms.

The frequency of raids and robberies has relegated many recreational
players to their homes or worse - Atlantic City. Only pros and very
motivated players now regularly show up at the clubs. Such men are
generally solid players who love to play big. This development has not
only thinned the $2/$5 and $5/$10 no-limit population, but it has also
starved the $1/$2 games that are the breeding ground of future $2/$5
players (and initial fodder for the $5/$10 game).

Although $2/$5 games still form, the concentration of sharks has
skyrocketed, making the games play much bigger and tougher than usual.
This has shunted many mid-level players to the $1/$2 tables and
compelled rooms to cancel their $2/$5 no-limit games in favor of $5/$10.
Mid-limit players seeking experience, therefore, are left to choose
either baby no-limit or deep-stack $5/$10 no-limit.

At the same time, to reduce the risk of losing their stacks when police
raid a room and seize all cash and chips as "evidence," many respected
rounders now play on credit. Other players have made predeposits,
generally up to $10,000, with the club owners so that they do not have
to bring cash to the rooms.

This way, if cops seize their chips, they only lose profits because the
clubs generally erase that evening's buy-ins from their books after a
raid. Barring such force majeure, however, the understanding is players
will settle up before leaving. But this is not always the case. Players
now do not often carry sufficient cash to cover their buy-ins, and ATMs
do not permit $10,000 withdrawals. Even in the case of pre-depositing
rounders, club owners simply do not store the deposits on the premises.

After a particularly bad beat, players will often rebuy on credit for
double their initial buy-in without having the funds on hand to cover.
This creates a ratcheting upwards of table stakes. Because the $5/$10
no-limit games in underground clubs are usually uncapped, players now
regularly buy in for $5,000 or higher without putting up cash.

Even the $1/$2 no-limit games, which are capped, play too high. In one
popular $1/$2 game, where the maximum buy-in is $750, several players
usually command over $4,000 in chips by late evening.

Play on credit has led to the tendency for players not to be fully paid
after a big win. That many clubs are asking players to extend them
credit (because their losing players were unable to settle up for the
evening) is causing players to demand more credit from the rooms,
resulting in a vicious cycle. The easier the credit, the bigger the
games, and the greater incentive for robberies.

While it remains uncertain whether this degeneration can be reversed,
two trends deserve watching.

First is the rise of semi-private "home" games. Sub-communities of
players have started organizing home-games for a short list of vetted
players. A typical $5/$10 semi-private game outside the city has an
average buy-in of $5,000. Unfortunately, the rakes in these games are
high, and the player pool is tiny. There are advantages to maintaining a
small, collegiate community of players. But you also want sufficient
elasticity in the pool so that fresh money and talent are constantly
added. With the miniscule player pools in semi-private home games, the
dangers of soft-play engendered by close friendships are too great.
Underground rooms used to offer a middle ground between incestuous
private games and anonymous casinos.

Second is for rounders to organize semi-private games online. One site,
Third Bullet Poker (www.ThirdBullet.com), markets itself as the
"underground room online." It maintains a medium-sized pool of players
with whom you can gain familiarity over the long-term, just as rounders
would in brick and mortar underground clubs.

Matthew21v13 is a lifetime money contributor to the underground poker
scene. He can also be found losing tons of cash at the public $15/$30
limit and $2/$5 no-limit rooms on ThirdBullet.com, as well as its
high-stakes private rooms.

If you would like information on the private games on ThirdBullet.com,
e-mail management directly at management@thirdbullet.com. We understand
that if you type in Bonus Code 3RDAK0001 when making your first deposit,
you will receive a 150% sign-up bonus. This deposit is also eligible to
win the $300 Winner's Cash Bounty paid monthly to all winning players.

Bittersweet Update.

2007-04-16T08:57:00.001-04:00

I used my Bank of America debit card at FullTilt; I'm back at it!

In other news, since Tuesday of last week, I had all winning sessions; 2
sessions on Friday, Donovan's Saturday.

In one of the sorriest tournament performances, I managed to come back
from a single chip (no chair) to take down 2nd place at Donovan's.
(okay, okay, so I rebought)

It's been a long road, but with that win, I can now say that I am a +
live game player. (started playing 10/2003)
I'm -$4k online; my goal is to be + before I return to a casino. I plan
to do that by playing using online to play tournaments and honing my
deep stack game. (low limit)

Them's some sorry stats, but that's my history.

This is the most important poker related post in this blog:

2007-02-26T17:04:00.000-05:00

I really do hate Barry.

This is the most important poker related post in this blog:

2007-02-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

I really do hate Barry.

Report from the riverboat

2007-01-16T20:51:00.000-05:00

Well, here's the first report from the January 2007 Tunica outing:

I left with $1300, return with $1200.

Expenses:
$1850

7 tournaments costing a total of $1450.
Travel costs were $125 (private charter flight there and back)
Lodging 6 nights: $215
1 paid dinner, Lamb: $60 [I went with the fellas to the nicest
restaurant in the casino, kinda like Bones on Piedmont.] (all other
meals and drinks comped)
Wins:

I was only able to cash in one tournament to win $500, of which, I
paid $125 protection [Donovan and I paid $125 to enter. 10 people
total, 2 winners. If I won, but Donovan did not, then I gave back the
entry fee... Protection] , net gain, $250
Doing the math, this is ($300) [Tournament wins, $250 less expenses
$1850 is $1600. Starting cash $1300 = ($300). Since I have $1200, I
must have gained $1500 somewhere.] . I return with $1200 cash,
therefore, I won $1500 playing $1/2 on the cash tables [these were
the 'cheap' tables, you can only start with $200 maximum] .
Massive experience points. ATL scene, look out!
Net -$100 for a week of poker fun! I can't live on $100 a week, normally.

Good article

2006-12-11T22:09:00.001-05:00

The Four Ways to Lose a Tournament and How to Avoid Them
by Jennifear on 10/27/2006 19:57
http://www.pocketfives.com/B1954A43-6C48-43E9-8513-036828B66AB2.aspx

It has long been said that to win a tournament, playing to survive is
secondary. The greatest players of our time seem to know exactly when
to take the risks necessary to get the job done at just the right
time. Playing to win is key to maximizing tournament profits, often
at great immediate risk.

There are only four ways to lose a tournament. Every tournament loss
is related to one of these four ways, and many losses are related to
more than one of these ways! My intention in writing this article is
to state these four reasons for losing the tournament that a player
faces, and with each, to show instances where playing to win and
playing to survive actually work together to increase your chances of
success!

Way to Lose #1: Succumbing to a Bad Beat.

Well since you got your chips in with the best of it, there's nothing
you can do about a bad beat right? Often, the answer is... Wrong!
When a bad beat knocks you out, it is because, at the beginning of the
hand, you had fewer chips than the one who put you out with his
four-outer. If you had chips remaining after the hand, you would have
survived.

The remedies:

- Chip up as you go, especially early on, and when the money bubble is
about to break.

- If the action is folded to you in late position, be sure to open the
pot for a raise with a wide variety of hands.

- Take advantage of weakness by attacking it at every opportunity.

- If your opponent raises too much, come over top on occasion.

- Make the most of your big hands.

- Induce a bluff when you have the goods by making a small lead bet
against an aggressive opponent.

- Play your strong draws very aggressively when you are a favorite or
only a slight underdog to win the pot.

Each of these moves adds a little to your stack and just might be
enough to save your tournament life, so that when the inevitable bad
beat comes around, you aren't on the rail.

Way to Lose #2: Getting Caught with the Second-Best Hand.

When you have an excellent hand and your opponent has the nuts, often
it is correct to go broke on the hand because you are a favorite to
win. This does not mean the situation was definately unavoidable
though! When a second-best hand knocks you out, much of the time it
was a case of failing to isolate.

The remedies:

- Raise your big hands preflop to reduce the number of hands you are
up against. The more hands that are in there with you, the more
likely it is, exponentially, that your fantastic hand will not hold
up.

- Preflop, open the pot for a raise as often as possible, as opposed
to limping in.

- Play good starting cards, so that kicker hands are decided in your favor.

- Don't slowplay non-monsters, allowing a draw to catch up, and make
it costly to find out that he did.

- Make large bets when there are draws out there, in order to make it
unprofitable for them to continue drawing.

- Respect check-raises against bad opponents; they often have a very
strong hand.

- Don't ignore a strong read that says you are beat. Often when it
looks like the nuts, it's the nuts.

Way to Lose #3: Bluffing Big at the Wrong Time.

It's a fine line between making the one big play that counts at just
the right time and making the one big play that counts against you at
just the wrong time. Aggressive players often have a yo-yo effect on
their stack throughout the tournament, going from the top to the
middle to shortstacked to the middle and to the chiplead again! Then
all of a sudden, it all comes crashing down at the most inopportune
time...

The remedies:

- Save the biggest bluffs for special occasions when you are more than
reasonably certain your opponent will fold and your read of his hand
or range of hands is extremely solid.

- Don't try advanced plays against simple players. The key is to
think exactly one level ahead of your opponent, not two or more. If
you are two levels ahead, your opponent often has the right response
for the wrong reason. Too often a play is made based on what you
think your opponent will think you have, when all he is doing is
playing what he has, because he doesn't have the wherewithal to even
attempt to read your hand.

- Don't bluff the unbluffable. If you see an opponent make a
ridiculous call or multiple beginner's mistakes, stop and think before
trying a bluff on him.

- Have outs when you bluff as often as you can. This way, if you get
caught, you might just be able to pull out the card you need to not
only survive but double, which will help you survive later!

- Be aware of your table image. If you are seen as someone who makes
plays frequently, you are bound to be looked up.

- Against the toughest players, be sure the hand you are representing
on the street on which you are bluffing makes sense for every street
up until now. If not, you will confuse your opponent, and confused
people call.

- Choose opportune times to bluff, such as continuation betting and
around the money bubble.

Way to Lose #4: Blinding out.

When you are down to a shortstack, any of these ways can take you out
at any time. You are now just a fly to be swatted. People will call
you for any reason and even cooperate at times to ensure your
elimination. You must avoid getting too low on chips at all costs, so
that you can have the flexibility to have more than just one move.

The remedies:

- Learn about "M." Harrington on Hold'em, Vol 2. teaches you the way
to play when your stack is declining, at every step downward.

- Play more hands for a raise. When you are pot-committed, you cannot
be reraised out of the hand. If you are called by a better hand, they
still have to beat you to get you out!

- Be aware when there is little time left. Always know where the
blinds are, and when the next blind increase is, and if it will take
away all or most of your fold equity (ability to make others fold).
If the increase will reduce your stack to that level, steal a pot or
two while you still have a big enough stack to make others fold.

- Play your draws aggressively when you are shortstacked.

- Make slightly -EV plays now in exchange for getting a stack that
gives you the flexibility to make more +EV plays later.

- Chip up while your stack is average and below average, not just when
you have a big stack.

Hopefully, this article will help you recognize dangerous situations
and the best counters for each, while still allowing you to go for it
all! Remember, the ultimate in survival is outlasting everyone by
winning the last hand you play!

This is my first article that pertains to players of all levels,
rather than just my specialty, the low-limit game. I hope everyone
can benefit from it at every level.

I teach low-limit SNG lessons at the rate of $79.00 for four hours. I
offer a discount to anyone who signs up for a site through
pocketfives.com. For more information, e-mail me at
Goodtime46@aol.com or check out my website at
spaces.msn.com/jennypoker.

Tunica Schedule

2006-12-06T09:35:00.001-05:00

I've decided to clean up the blog below. Archiving the bad beat
whining, extract the wisdom and lessons, and push the learning limits of
what I can do in 'Meta' poker.

Sun. 1/7/2007 2:00PM Mega Satellite $300+$30
Sun. 1/7/2007 4:00PM Second Chance Tournament $175+$25
Sun. 1/7/2007 6:00PM Mega Satellite $500+$50
Mon. 1/8/2007 11:00AM 1 No-Limit Texas Hold'em $500+$50
Tue. 1/9/2007 11:00AM 2 No-Limit Texas Hold'em $1000+$60
Wed. 1/10/2007 11:00AM 3 No-Limit Texas Hold'em $500+$50
Thu. 1/11/2007 11:00AM 4 Omaha 8 or Better $500+$50
Thu. 1/11/2007 3:00PM 5 No-Limit Texas Hold'em $1500+$70
Fri. 1/12/2007 11:00AM 6 No-Limit Texas Hold'em (6 handed) $1000+$60
Sat. 1/13/2007 11:00AM 7 H.O.R.S.E. $1000+$60
Sat. 1/13/2007 3:00PM 8 No-Limit Texas Hold'em $500+$50
Sun. 1/14/2007 11:00AM 9 Ladies No-Limit Texas Hold'em $200+$30
Sun. 1/14/2007 12:00PM Mega Satellite $500+$50
Sun. 1/14/2007 3:00PM Mega Satellite $300+$30
Sun. 1/14/2007 6:00PM Mega Satellite $500+50
Mon. 1/15/2007 11:00AM 10 Main Event - No-Limit Texas Hold'em $5000+
$150
Tue. 1/16/2007 11:00AM Main Event, Day 2
Wed. 1/17/2007 11:00AM Main Event, Final Table

Update

2006-10-06T09:39:00.000-04:00

I have neglected the postings for a while, so I will try and catch up.

I am on poker break this week following Tunica. (I decided to return to live play a smidge early. yay me, Saturday night, the deck beat me over the head, and nearly erased all my losses from my trip.) ... (another update; played Monday night, and erased all my losses, and most of my lodging expense)

Bill Frisk and Bob Goodlatte have panicked the online poker community by passing some toothless legislation about banks not allowed to do business with gaming companies. Well, banks don't do those transactions anyway.

Nux Vomica is dead. It served its purpose, we learned a lot, but it's over.

I am curious about a situation where someone get felted by a bad player then they just leave the online table?

The tournaments in Tunica were good to me, but that's probably because there were so many fish. I think I should start playing more tournaments and not neglect that arena. There is a difference between short stack, ante, and deep stack tournaments. Tunica gave me some valuable insight on short play: No early limping, get into raised pots that you might be behind so you can get a reasonable chance to double up, and conversely, it's very important to play tight early.

Live tournaments I seem to be doing fairly well. Mr. Rome has provided me with a very powerful thought pattern / mentality about fear:
"There is a scene in Band of Brothers that I often think of in the context of NL Hold'em tournaments. An officer is fearlessly walking from foxhole to foxhole, encouraging the men during a battle. He finds a cowering private rolled up into a ball, and says to him "Do you know why you are scared, Private?"
"No sir," says the private.
"It is because you think there is hope... you don't understand that you are already dead."
After this exchange, the private picks up his weapon and joins the fight.
This works for me.

Google has started an online spreadsheet service. I now keep my Poker Accountability Report(PAR) there.

I still continue to struggle with online play, but after Tunica, I am beginning to think that the 10¢/25¢ proving grounds are good practice.

I seem to be doing very well in terms of my mentality towards poker. I have had many instances when someone will tell me, 'man, that was a tough beat / laydown,' and I think there was nothing to it... I lost a large pot set vs. set, and I was fine with it. No gut wrenching, just on to the next hand.

In cash games, I realize that I have been playing short stack cash. That's all I have ever played. I read an article about the struggling New York underground scene, and realize that deep stack cash is another animal altogether, and I need to learn that game.

I have also neglected my limit game, as well as other forms of poker, including Omaha, 7 card, razz, hi/lo versions and um... This other 4 card game... 4 low cards, all same suit...

Tunica, Sep 25-Oct 2, 2006. WSOP Circuit.

2006-10-03T13:44:00.000-04:00

My first casino poker/WSOP Circuit event.

Well, my initial impression is that the vast majority of the people at this event are simply not good at playing poker. Unfortunately, this reflects poorly on me, as I was unable to leave with a overall win.

Conversely, I leave with a confidence that I am a much stronger player than ever before. I was able to play a variety of games from cash 2/5 NL and 4/8 limit, to single table tournaments (SNG) and large field multi table tournaments (MTT) with 800+ opponents. I was very effective at the SNG, finishing first or chopping a deal more than 50% of the time.

The limit cash tables were somewhat tough, as it seemed that none of the players knew enough to ever be afraid, and the NL tables were very intimidating since there is no maximum buy in. I might sit down with $400, someone else might sit with $4000. It took me the full week to not let that difference concern me and just simply take their money, as they were just giving it freely.

I managed to only tilt once while playing 4/8 when it seemed that nothing would ever go my way early Monday evening. My other bad run happened on Saturday at the SNG tables, when I entered 6 times, and only split once, erasing my slight win and putting me firmly in the red(-1200). I can only take solace that the 3 sharks that traveled with me were down similar amounts.

Now, before you fret, dear fans, I did a quick check; for the entire month of September, I am still up, so I have every expectation of my future play starting 9/9/06 will return my bankroll to its previous luster and health.

Highlights:
I met Susan, the director for the WSOP events; she hires the dealers. She asked for my information.
Everybody likes me... except that one jerk, and nobody liked him.
The Atlanta crowd is huge and healthy. Great underground scene.
Player to my right gets Royal Flush (I didn't pay him a dime)
I saw a $4700 pot, one hand. (The mounds of chips and cash... wow)

Lows:
I leave light.
I don't meet or see a single pro.
I don't have a story where I was in a massive pot, much less win one; my biggest win was right at $800 in one hand... actually 2-3 times that trip. maybe this should go in the column above.

I'll post more if I can think of anything else relevant.

Thursday Game

2006-05-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I thought I played much better last night.

I think I chased one flush draw last night: I raised $20 PF, got 3 callers. I have AcQc, flop comes KcJc2h. Check to me, I check, Harvey checks behind me. Turn 3d, no help, check, check, harvey bets $100, checker calls, I call for implied odds. <- bad move? Not quite the right odds, but if I hit, my implied odds... But I don't. River 5s, no help, Harvey bets $200, (he says he rivered a straight, not that it matters), us two wussy callers fold. (I'm sure he was chasing a flush as well, and I'm sure Ida gotten paid, just not by Harvey, unless it was the 5 of clubs.)

Another hand: I have KK, Chris raises 20 pf, I am in late position, he gets one caller, I reraise to $65 straight. EJ calls from the button, Chris calls. (too much pf?) I don't mind shutting it down right there, or gaining information to let me know where I am.

Pot just over 215. flop is 78x with 2 clubs. Chris checks. I bet $200, EJ felt it was an overbet, he says he thought the pot was only $150. Whatever, he goes AI for $92 more. I realize I may have made a mistake here, only because I didn't leave myself enough room to learn if there was a flopped set. Yeah, well.. 92 to win $605? um.. yeah!

The turn and river are 9, T, which work just perfectly with his jj. FACK! Outstanding. Oh well, I calm myself down and get back into the game.

Started with $400, made it just over $600 got tagged, dropped to $100, rebought $300, fought back, left with $365.

I reasonably could have saved $100, on that call with Harvey, or perhaps raised instead of calling, but that would have meant AI on a draw. Like I said, I think I played much better, I just have nothing to show for it, but a minimal loss. Which is better than (-1300), or (-1000)

Long time no post

2006-05-12T09:08:00.000-04:00

A few Thought to ponder to start:

A professional performs, regardless of how they feel.

- unknown (no tilting)

Stages to become a professional:

Unconscious Incompetence

Unaware of what to do, or why to do it.

Conscious Incompetence

Awareness of the need for knowledge.

Conscious Competence

Awareness of knowledge and proper application.

Unconscious Competence

Application of knowledge by reflex.

A long written muse.

So, here's what has given me an awesome edge in No Limit every time, hell, I probably have his posted somewhere below:

NEVER CALL. Preflop, Flop, Turn, Always Raise, and raise properly for a specific goal in mind:

Now here's the important part: If you can't raise to meet one of these three goals, then strongly consider folding.

Raise to prevent callers.

Raise to induce a call.

Raise to induce a raise.

Inducing a raise can give you information about your position in the hand. Listen to that information.

Sometimes 'raising' to induce callers might mean calling in a early position to allow multiple callers.

Don't allow the game to become a 5 card game if you can end it before then.

Guilty as Charged.

2006-04-23T18:08:00.000-04:00

PL: Speaking of online poker, did you hear about those two players who had their accounts seized for playing multiple entries in one tournament?
MIZRACHI:
Yes, they decided to take their tournament winnings away and divide it up between the other players. I played multiple accounts in a tournament before and I didn't even know it was against the rules and they never said anything; but I don't really think it's fair. It's pretty much a normal thing and a lot of players do it; playing two or three entries in a tournament, they're basically trying to give themselves 2 or 3 chances to win the tournament. As long as they're not at the same table, it doesn't really matter. I tried playing a few entries at once but didn't play very well; I can concentrate a lot better with just one. Now I just play the way they want with one account.

Yeah, well, I gotta come clean with my sordid history:
I started playing poker right after Moneymaker won, but I didn't know at the time. I was playing wild card homegames and learning new stuff. I soon met this fella who ran an underground 3/6 game. I was a great producer for his game. I played at his game for about 4 months, and also learned to deal. One evening, I went on tilt and got stuck for $360. While not earthshattering, I wasn't willing to toss that kind of $ a night with my lack of ability.

I started play $ online at PokerRoom as adodomini. I eventually built my play stack and was playing regularly in the 10K pf/or fold rooms. One day I tilted and got out the credit card to get the 10K play reload.

Next was a steady diet of 25¢/50¢ NL, lucky dollars, and freerolls. About this time, several friends of mine were at the same skill level. We would conference call and coach each other in tournaments, and cover for each other to register and start tournaments. Then, while covering, I 'met myself'. I stole a few pots until the table broke. We laughed about that, but it was never the object to win that way.

My darkest time was when we brazenly colluded on a cash table. Over a few sessions, we probably stole hundreds of quarters from unsuspecting victims.

I invited another fellow player to join in, but he declined, citing integrity of the game. That did it for me. I stopped colluding then, realizing that I wanted to become a better player, not a better cheater.

In a combination of Karma and donktastic play, I felted a short time later. I decided to abandon the adodomini name and become Box O Rocks as a new start. In an effort to better myself, I started learning all I could and started Nux Vomica on Pokah. I contacted PR and shut down adodomini.

The sordid story should end there, but i did a stint at FullContactPoker before the multiaccounting tournament bit started. I entered the first Royal Tournament early this year, to give myself a second chance, not to cheat. I lost both entries, but it was the wrong thing to do. I decided not to do it again.

Then the ace of aces news broke. That's my story. I'm guilty. but I think we all have holes in our past.

2006-04-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

So I'm doing okay with the live return, but the real reason for this post is this cartoon:

Sad, I know but I just think it funny.

Live return

2006-03-23T13:28:00.000-05:00

So far, so slow. My return to live play has been with mixed results. I have learned a couple of moves that are very important, and was essential for me to see and experience live to really get the concepts into my head.

I stumbled into learning something the other day: I hold 99, my table image is loose but knowledgeable, I raise to 3x bb, 6 handed UTG, which should let me know if someone has a larger pocket pair, and should announce that I hold a hand stronger than my usual crap.

2 callers,

Flop is ATT, two diamonds.

Simply terrible. I need to know where I am right now, so I bet pot, first to act. The first player hems and tosses, then the button tosses… I win?

Why did I win? Player one is fairly tight, and uses pot odds a lot. Button likes to be aggressive, only if he can be first aggressor. The first player says he had an ace with a strong kicker, the button says he had QQ. They both were sure that I had trip T's

Given that neither one had a flush draw, how did they put me on trips? When I bet pot, I ruined the odds to draw to the flush, and I had a reasonably strong hand. Also, the loose image provided the possiblity that I had TJ KT, AT, even 9T.

The lesson learned is that thinking players will consciously or subconsciously put you on a hand based on the odds presented by a particular bet. 2/3s to pot sized bet is the type of bet that will ruin flush draws over time, but make $ for trips. I blindly made a bet that said a lot about the hand that I held.

Really, I was just trying to find out where I was, but my bet 'said' trips. It's another piece of the 'storytelling' about my hand, that I need to incorporate into my game, and know that I can use it with thinking players, not fish or donks.

Whoops

2006-03-03T11:42:00.000-05:00

Aright. I went back to the game, and I got stuck for $600… plus whatever vig Jason is charging on his $20. Overall though, I don't think I did anything really bad. Jason might take issue with that, and I want him to tell me so.

Same plan. I wanted to play a little looser with my initial buyin, and tighter with my second buyin. The first buyin, I did indeed play looser, and made a bet that was iffy, with the nut flush draw. I had fold equity, and outs to the best hand. Again, Jason might take issue with that, but that's why I'm including him on this blog. Heh. He's probably the only one reading this… ever.

The second buyin, I didn't tighten up! I just played pretty much the same, if anything, I became weaker. I made a call that I could have folded vs. Tony. I made the call thinking I had the best hand (top 2), (Jason says he knew Tony had the nuts), and I had outs to the best hand again... (uh… 4)

After getting busted the second time, I though about how I had played and how the game was playing. I had two smart aggressive players on my right, and two players on my left that I thought I could beat. One guy was raising raising 10x the bb in early position a lot with just the blinds in the pot. I wonder if those $3 takedowns were raked? That would be hilarious. Anyway, I was hoping to be the guy to bust him, but Jason got those honors. The guy started whining about not knowing how much Jason had in front of him, but it was total BS. He knew. It took everything I had for me to not laugh when Jason simply gave him $50 to stop bitching, under the pretense that it was because Jason didn't have the stack 'precisely' in front of him.

I made one very good laydown (flopped 2 pr vs. turned 2 pr), and one lucky laydown (AJ vs. TT, flop JTT) Lucky because had it only been me, Jason would have never have bet his quad, and I would have rivered the boat, so I saved $50 there.

I think the one thing I could have done better was to have cashed out for $50 at that point. I would never buy into the game for $50, so why would I continue playing for $50? Hell, I could have made that decision at $75, or $100. I made a game evaluation earlier, when I bought back in with Jason's money. I need to make constant game evaluations.

Sucked in some more.

2006-03-01T10:51:00.000-05:00

I have not posted in a while, but it's not because I've been losing. I played live again, and again, I really just got lucky. 1/2 again, this time, +90.

Online, I've been playing a string of 5+.50 turbos, fishing at FCP, slowly but surely advancing. I really think that Jason's words of wisdom assist me to become a much better player live and online.

I also think that my attitude has improved my play. I don't think less of someone calling my bets down to show me a 4 card river flush that beats me with a 5 in his hand, no pair. I don't feel bad when my AA or KK gets cracked by someone holding 92off. This allows me the ability to play around with other people's emotions, I can raise UTG with 23off, and be the aggressor to the showdown, just to show my raw nekkid bluff to induce action later.

I've also learned to play extra aggressively with the nuts to induce calls or portray a bluff to get paid, or to bet aggressively when I do have the best draws. I still need to understand when to make those critical laydowns, and also get a better understanding of 'training' my opponent.

I'm slowly gaining an understanding of the value of betting on the river for not only value and fold equity, but also the value of not having to show my hand.

I try to remain conscious of the story that I tell with my manners, my betting, and my image, while keeping in mind what stories other players tell, and how all of that story telling becomes an intricate conversation.

Tonight, I plan on being more of a 'listener', trying to focus on the 'conversation' of the game, and try to keep my physical mouth shut more than I have been. I'll also focus on some possible tells that I may be exhibiting.

Just enough to suck me in

2006-02-16T10:24:00.000-05:00

So after talking with my coach, Jason, for a while, I decide to go play live. 1/2 NL, I bring two buyins; I leave one in the car.

A couple of rounds in, I'm SB, and this guy straddles, betting $4 in the dark and gaining an option to raise after the BB calls.

There are a couple of calls behind him; I look down and see two black aces.

I raise to 15$ straight, and Adam(BB) and Chris(straddle) call behind me, the rest of the limpers fold.

I look at Jason, "I thought you told me 15$ preflop shuts this table down?" He shrugs.

Flop: QJ8 two spades.

I bet the pot hoping to shut down the draws, Adam calls, Chris raises, putting us both AI. Great. So much for careful play. I'm thinking of the ways that I'm beat, Adam starts whining about how he's sure that he has the best hand. I think I'm up against a set and 2 pair, putting me firmly in 3rd place, but Adam is moaning so much, I think if I call, Adam will fold, not wanting to suffer the draws vs. a bet and a call for all his money. I wanted to isolate anyway, but I still think I'm behind. If Adam calls, I'll have better odds: I have overpair aces, but I need my draws to best set, top 2 pair, or a back door straight or flush. 6 outs, by my retarded math.

Chris calls time, I make a weak joke and the horrid call, believing I'm behind. Adam bitches a little more and folds, showing top 2 pair. Tough fold, it is the best hand as Chris shows 82 for bottom pair and the flush draw. Good bet by Chris. He almost got 2 much better hands to fold to him. Hey! I'm ahead. He was counting on us to fold. But even if we stayed, he had the good draws.

Turn spade. Feck!. 26% to catch.

I did plan to play a little loose with my first buyin, looks like an early trip to the car…

River spade. Runner runner, and I've caught it.

Damn. Nice to re-suckout for so much. It seems like it never happens to me, but it did tonight! After that, there were 3 or 4 more large pots and I won them.

Just enough to suck me back into the game. But I realize that I was stupid lucky that first hand, and I've got to become a much better player if I expect to survive.

On the other hand, winning that one hand gave me a lot of someone else's money. Playing with that $ gave me the confidence to play aggressively and boldly.

whoops

2006-01-27T11:46:00.000-05:00

A series of idiot blunders last night: -$150 Dumb

Holding steady

2006-01-25T13:12:00.000-05:00

I used one of my $50 tickets for the Daily - didn't get very far at all :(

Bank at $350+

Break!

2006-01-13T17:48:00.000-05:00

Weird. I stopped playing Sunday afternoon, and the next poker game I played was live Thursday night. That's a very long break for me.

I needed it to clear my head and shake off that malaise. I plan to play tonight.

Game on.

BITCH!

2006-01-09T17:41:00.000-05:00

I managed to double my PR account, but I lost everything at FCP. net loss: 50 for the weekend, or thereabouts.

On the plus side, I do have a $50+4 and a $6+1 ticket, so technically you could say I'm even. (cough cough.. bullshit)

I feel I'm coming closer to getting the hang of winning the full table SnG. This goes hand in hand with winning the 5 handed tables. I think my conservative play described earlier is not giving me the edge I need heads up. I was primarily concerned with not stealing earlier, now, I am trying to learn when to actively steal whenever I can, by setting it up preflop, and so on.

More to come.

2006-01-05T09:26:00.000-05:00

I didn't play last night, but Damn, my car looks good.

Downside of bonus whoring

2006-01-03T21:01:00.000-05:00

Well, things have gone wrong today. I loosened up, and had 3-4 good hands ruined with suckouts. What was extra irritating is that I ended up losing it all to the same guy! -$200. It will come back. Then, I got in a $10+1 MTT, 340 enter, I got 8th, cracked outta there with AA in the hole on the short stack. That's 2x now gone with AA at the final table.

I did get some nice wheels for my ride, though:

And another view from the rear:

Bonus Whoring

2006-01-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

After a marathon session yesterday, I experienced some of the largest swings yet: From a high of $712, nothing at risk, to a low of $280, ending at $403, +$200 bonus. That's $400 at $1/$2 NL, or 10 buyins for me. The last time I did this, my variance was only $140, and I ended up + $60. This time, I got the bonus, but ended up down over all $320. Granted, this was over the entire weekend, but I still think this is way too much.

I've now opened an account at www.FullContactPoker.com to obtain another $240 bonus there. I don't like the interface as much. I have not been able to locate where you keep track of your player points... I will suggest that there be a running tabulation of player points at the bottom of the main screen, right along with the Real money and Play money counters for all of ongame servers. The cashier function seems clunky.
Also, there are no people icons at the table, but there are chairs. Seems silly to me. I like the people icons at PokerRoom. I'll ask for those as well at FCP.
Normally, I'd be irritated at seeing some 'famous' person plastered all over the site, but I don't mind Daniel Negranu. I like what I've seen of his persona on TV, his blog, and playing online.
I'm sure I'll get used to the blue background.

I will bank at 2.5x buyin, currently $120 which seems to insulate me from some of the more terrible things that happen to my bankroll.
I will do some calculations/research on mid pocket pairs and see how they fare.
I will do some calculations/research on small suited connectors, based on Doyle. They work for him, could they work for me?

I will also consider starting at $43-$50. This will increase my variance, and I'm now delving into the realm of playing rather than waiting for the cards. Interesting. Let's see where this goes.

MTT table finish

2005-12-28T00:48:00.000-05:00

30+3 6th. My AA got cracked by QT. Oh well.

Lessons learned

2005-12-21T13:19:00.000-05:00

The announcement: reload bonus: 50% up to $200. Deadline is in 3 days. The problem: an existing bonus due to clear in 3-4 weeks. (I might be able to run them concurrently, but I have to write about something) The solution: clear the current bonus in less than 3 days, so the new bonus can start.

The bonus is paid a player collects player points (PP) based on rake. Currently at PokerRoom.com: for each dime in rake, you get .07 PP. At the max rake of $3, you get 2.1 PP.

The smallest table spread that collects the max $3 in rake is $1/$2. The choice is to play NL HE.

Problem: Bankroll. The minimum buyin at $1/$2 is 20, with a maximum buyin of $200. The current bankroll is only $340, and at one point in the session drops as low as $200. Variance is as high as total buyin which makes sense, since the average pot was almost the size of the buyin for each table. The object is to get raked at the maximum amount for minimum risk while making enough $ to cover the blinds, and maintain bankroll position.

Solution: Open 4 $1/$2 tables with $40 each, which is 2x the minimum buyin. These tables average pot was $30+ or 15x BB. There's risk with these very low amounts, but the defense is playing tight: AA thru TT and AK. AQ and lower PP in later positions only in unraised pots. Fold everything else. Of course, anything in an unchallenged BB. Once flopped bottom 2 pair in the BB, and doubled. Once played JJ to the river and lost table buyin.

On the other hand, considering 50 hands per hour, the button rotates by every 9 hands with a full table of 10, due to players coming and going. This means 5.5 rotations x $3 for blinds equals hemorrhage of $16.50 per hour. Times 4 tables is $66 per hour. Simply sitting at the table is not an option. Sitting at a short handed table where the blinds come more frequently is out of the question.

One bluff per hour in 2nd thru 5th position with any hand. (These are my favorite bluff positions). 3 bluffs work, generally getting 1 caller, and a strong bet after the flop ending the hand. One bluff picked off preflop by a very strong hand, and the bluff is folded. Minimal loss.

Rule: Do not stay on a table when the average pot drops below $25 since the goal is to gain player points, and the pots have to stay high. As a tight player, there is somewhat of a cooling effect on the table, so pay attention to the average pot sizes. Also, leave a table if the buyin gets doubled. AA preflop is not unbeatable, and the bankroll can't withstand more variance.

Results: Remaining 475 points and current $100 bonus cleared in 3 hours of play. A little luck serves up a run of good cards towards the end of the session and the bankroll gets an overall gain of $60 for play. Total gain on the bankroll of 47%!

Tight play is Very correct, and serves the bankroll quite well. Seeing about 200+ hands per hour, it is expected to see all the pocket pairs once each hour. AA showed 4x and KK once. That's just about right, if not a little lucky. All of them won, probably because the time(s) when a looser player might have sucked out, they figured, 'too tight' and just folded to the PF raises.

Individual hands got unlucky 3-4 times, and lucky 3-4 times. QQ lost to 34 suited, but TT won against AA.

It's just what the doctor ordered. Good practical examples of reinforcement demonstrating that the odds are true, personal luck is not running poorly, and logic does prevails over superstition.

There's a bit to be said about splitting concentration over 40 people over 4 tables. It is much harder to judge your situation when there is not time to pay attention to the table. It is noted that 3-4 other players were on at least 3 tables, and many others playing 2 at a time. However, a tight style helps to overcome the disadvantage of less attention.

All things considered, this was a great learning experience.

Felted!

2005-12-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

So I haven't written in a while. Why? Because I've felted. I'm still felted, and I've had to reload. But I had to write. As far as poker goes, I was depressed for a bit because it seemed nothing was going my way. The only thing I have to say is that I'm still in high spirits about tagging that strong win. Because I'm good. People pretty much consistently have to get lucky to beat me.

I think a missing part of my strong program is struggling back from the brink. Then, struggling out of mid pack and into the lead.

The rivers seem to be unkind to me, but I notice more when I get lucky when I'm behind. The Grand V is this weekend, and I will try to score a ticket for that event.

Another weapon to use

2005-11-09T11:14:00.000-05:00

Dan Harrington makes the analogy to the different moves and ploys as golf clubs. You use a few select clubs most of the time, but for those rare occurrences, when you need it, you have that perfect move for a particular situation.

I was playing Osiris the other evening, and lost like 3-4 heads up matches. He told me that I was too timid as a big stack, I thought about it, and I agreed. And so, I tried something new, and well, I learned something today about bubble play.

3 players remain with the top position winning $54, 2nd winning $6, nothing for 3rd. I find myself 10K to the 2 small stacks, both were even, about 2.5K each. (Starting with 3 players I was down to less than 600 in chips, got lucky to get called with a winning hand, and then doubled again with a set vs. flush draw and rebuilt to my strong lead.)

Well, everyone knows that if you're big stack, and there's a bubble, you should use that opportunity to steal like mad:
I could have just let them knock each other out, but the result would be that I'm a 10k stack vs. 5k stack. While not bad, it could be much better:

If I continue to obviously steal, they may roll over and play dead, each hoping for 2nd.
Here's the fine point that I learned:
I did my best to steal from them both evenly.

I was actively stealing with total bluffs; I would try and create opportunities to punish the larger stack more, and give the little guy a break.

I didn't want them to get unbalanced, because it made it difficult to steal from the both of them.

With the blinds at 200-400, the little guy on the BB, I call, attempting to force the big guy out; his thought being that I would end the little guy. But after the flop, maybe I'd go easy on the small stack, if that would even them up with 2nd place. (I kind of have to, anyway, see below) That puts pressure back on the other stack and he has to play more marginal hands.

Maybe the bigger stack gets too big? I bet enough that makes him less than the small stack if he decides to play. He's not going to gain enough to be a threat to me, but he could end up crippling himself; a lose-lose proposition. He folds with anything less than a premium hand.

I leave the short stack to fend for himself when he's really short; he'll get too antsy and won't be a good target to steal from. I'll leave that to the other stack, so they get even again. What I don't want is to let the big stack double thru me, or get rid of the small stack until I've stolen the maximum amount from their combined stacks. It's much easier to smash an ant than a weasel.

I don't know if this tactic is always possible, but it's a good situation to try and create.

Oh, yeah, I won.

Doing much better

2005-11-07T13:03:00.000-05:00

Very lovely. Bankroll is growing nicely and steadily. Tighter early, looser later. The fun easy game this past weekend started with first two hands; a boat that was paid off max, then quads that was paid off max.

I got to deal at Brookwood, $40/hr for 4 hours. A few mistakes, but overall good game. I wish I could get more practice.

So, after backsliding down to 180, I've returned to 340. About $40 thru Omaha. I might have made more, but I made a few boneheaded calls running into a better hand, and not making those key laydowns.

Decent MTT finish

2005-11-03T09:55:00.000-05:00

Since this Sunday, I have had a bad run of rivers. But last night, I played a tight solid game and made it to 11th place in a 10+1 out of 322 players. I didn't get a lot of good hands, but I was able to skim along the bottom and make a decent finish anyway.

The following was said during a bashing in the lobby. The question was, "How long is this tournament?"
Answer "Usually 5 to 6 hours of profesional play, something you don't have, so dont bother!"

Harsh, but true. Fortunately, I have what it takes. I will succeed. I also learned that during May 2005, I outperformed 10691069 in terms of ROI in tournaments.

Return to live play

2005-10-31T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well, this weekend, I returned to live tournament play. Unfortunately for me, I got colddecked: AJ best unpaired hand, 55 best paired hand. I still managed to make it to 8th place of 20.

All in all, I felt pretty good about my play, except I was kinda bitchy when I went out. It was a coin flip preflop, I flop Q flush, guy gets runner runner boat with 22. I was shortstacked.

The table I was on was pretty wild, nobody seemed to start with anything other than crap. Not a whole lot of fun for me, but it was a learning experience, in that I learned a bit about my reads and knowledge of people and their betting styles.

Terrible Hand Analysis

2005-10-27T10:32:00.000-04:00

I screwed myself out of a daily ticket. I was upset with myself because I tossed a perfectly good lead with a dumb hand. Bluffed and got caught. Yeah, I know, I'm thinking of booting myself from the group. Totally senseless. At the expense of my reputation, I'm going to describe my idiotic play in hopes that we can learn a lesson.

This is a 6+1 Daily Qualifier Tournament, 10 players, 1st gets ticket, 2nd gets rebuy. By playing very solidly, I found it was not too difficult to make it to heads up with Guy. We started heads up with stacks at about 5K for me, and 10K for him. Throughout the game, I was quite observant of his play. He seemed to overvalue his starting hands, but seemed to bet for value when he had a hand. He also seemed to recognize that I was a solid player, who did not attack me without a hand.

After a very few hands, I had taken advantage of his tendency to overbet his preflop hands, and his intention to use his bigstack like a club. I soon found myself with a great advantage, 12K to 3K

He started pulling the AI move with all hands.... blinds are at 200/400. He may have been on tilt at this point. Simply, he did not know what to do heads up. I did. There was really no need for me to get involved in any pot that I did not have a strong advantage.

As the BB, I start with 78 suited. I call, and he checks. I put him on weak overs.

Flop is all low cards. I have no hand, no draw, 8 high. He puts in a bet of about 2x pot. He tends to overvalue too much while headsup. I decide that he also does not have a hand, and that I can steal here.

I thought he was bluffing, and I re raised him AI. He called anyway. I just didn't think he could call without a hand.

Essentially, he called 7k with QJo. While there is no excuse for his play, there is plenty of room for improvement on my part. The mistake was very plain to me when I did it. I knew better than that; was just DUMB. There was no slip of the slider. Just being stubborn for no good reason. I have no way out of this one... worst move I've made in weeks.

Now, I would say that heads up is not a weak part of my game. I don't get impatient when headsup anymore. I tend not to get impatient at all, ever. I've been playing these short handed tournaments; once heads up, I'm better than 65% to win if I'm behind in chips.

I honestly did not think Guy could call, even though I knew I was behind at that point. A solution would have been to call at that point, or a min re-raise. A reraise or AI from him would have been all the information I needed to understand that my bluff would not work.

I'm not upset about the loss... really, more I'm upset at my moment of weakness. I played a very solid game up to that point, and even after that point. I almost made a comeback, but he got lucky, and that's fine. I love it when they get lucky, because this lets me know that my game is on point.

I'm over it... I am allowed to make mistakes, but that was a massive mistake. I've learned that I can bluff, but no reason to put in an over-bluff in that situation. What I did looked like A) a bluff b) top pair on board; he called, hoping to hit an over. He was weak enough (and I knew it) that I could expect
that he would call, simply hoping to get lucky. For his itty bitty poker brain, he was right to call. Personally, holding QJo, I woulda tossed in the face of the AI.

Now, if I did have top pair, I would never have put in that bet. If I had over pair, I wouldn't have put in that bet. I would have been trying to massage the pot.

Nux members are good and we can be bluffed and thats okay. Thats where our patience becomes our virtue. We have enough sense to be able to be bluffed. I like that.

I really wanted to forget about this foolishness and not think about my stupidity, but Dr. Blizzuff convinced me to analyze this debacle. Thanks, Dr. Blizzuff; good lessons can be learned even from dumb hands.

Damn, I'm becoming powerful.

Onward, Upward

2005-10-26T09:30:00.000-04:00

Omaha, last night I got brutalized with quad aces vs. my underboat. Ouch. The good news is that I was totally even playing Omaha yesterday.

The march continues, however with the 10+1 shorts. I've commented on my earlier strategy, based on my current playing style. It's very interesting how much more solid I've become with my strategy, and how it translates directly to a much better return on my $. I won 1, got second in the other. I should have won 2, but once heads up, this guy sucked out on me 2x in a row.

However, far from being discouraging, I am reassured that my solid play is a superior method, and I really don't mind this guy winning this time. He got lucky and won. He could not win vs. me any other way.

!! what if everyone read Dan Harrington?! How can I get better than what I've read?

I will take my strategy from the shorts and attempt more SnG full table qualifiers. I'm strong enough now that I should be able to obtain more 1/2 finishes vs. a full table. And that's where the $ is, and that's where I can further my original goals as listed below.

Slowly, but Surely

2005-10-25T15:51:00.000-04:00

My style of playing the Shorts has changed.

I'm much more docile early in the game, and I find that I have much better chance of getting heads up if I'm tight early. My variance is way down, and I find this is a good thing.

I still tend to end up with about 2.5K when heads-up, sometimes much more, or even ahead. Many people don't seem to know what to do heads-up, and bet as if they're trying to win it in 2-3 hands.

Essentially, I need to review how I'm playing now as opposed to earlier, and make updates to my strategy guide.

Heads Up tournaments

2005-10-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

Bet on Bet just added Heads up tournaments last night. I sat in, and the very first hand, this guy pushes AI. Then, he continues to do so with every other hand. Seemed pretty retarded to me. But he got me upset, and pushed me into thinking he was ID. Which he was, of course, but I made a stand with KQ. He had aces. Ah well. No problem.

Funny thing. Next game I sat in a 5 handed table, and the same guy shows up. He continues his boneheaded play. He goes out in 3rd, I go on to win. At least I got my $ back. I did play well last night, but again went out with QQ vs AA on one of my tournaments. I'm down for last night by $20.

Back to basics

2005-10-19T17:06:00.000-04:00

I have gone back to basics, and did very well on Monday. 6 SnG tournaments - 3 wins, 1 second, 2 losses. Last loss QQ vs AA.

I guess the most important thing I learned from Jason last week was not to depend on those 50% coin flips... they's just 50%. I can identify when I'm in those situations, I need to better determine when I'm in those 60/40 and 70/30 situations

RATS

2005-10-12T10:01:00.000-04:00

Okay, so now I've dropped 300. My play last night was fine, just some beats and some tilting. I should be fine.

I saw Jennifer Harmon's beat at the feature table WSOP 2005 day 1. She holds QdQ, guy calls with 8d9d

Flop is TJdQ, guy has straight, Jen has top set.

Turn is Td giving Jen nut boat, and opponent SF draw, Jennifer holds Qd so he has one out (2% by the way)

River's 7d I was gonna say 'horrid', but it's precisely that sort of emotion I don't need in my game.

It didn't put her out, but she was pissed enough that it really affected her. She did a really smart thing. She left the feature table. Just walked away for a moment. When she returned, she was still aggravated, however. She went out shortly afterward.

My point is that these beats happen in real life. We have to learn to deal with them emotionally and continue to play your best game.

Observe Daniel Negranau, who (televised) continued to laydown stong hands when he was beat. Emotionally, he seemed to be dealing with these blows much better. He was able to keep his head about him when laying down these hands, even though he didn't know if he made the right decision.

In contrast to this, we see the extremely lucky situations where players play mediocre hands and flop monsters - AT Sammy Farha, TT some actor guy, flop AAT First hand. All the $ goes in, guy is out 10k in 90 seconds. Then Sammy goes on to flop a set of 3's vs AA to rise above 30K in just a few minutes.

Greg Raymer ends up getting catching cards of a lifetime once he moved to the final table and having everyone pay him off. He also plays 22 vs a raise and goes on the attack vs AA and rivers a flush draw. (This play, and Raymer's action on this hand warrants careful review of how to play 22 with his flush draw, and how not to play Aces.)

All of this points to the requirements of keeping your head about you when everything goes wrong for you, and everything goes so right for everyone else.

Bankroll Management

2005-10-06T15:32:00.000-04:00

By Mike Caro

Many players treat their whole bankroll as if they're involved in an elimination tournament. You know how the pro tournaments work, right? They keep raising the stakes every hour, increasing the stakes as more and more players are eliminated quickly. Eventually all the chips end up with one championship player and everyone else loses.

Sadly, many players treat their bankrolls like this in real life. They beat a game, build their bankroll, move to a bigger limit. They keep pushing up the stakes whenever they survive one level. While they may be getting, theoretically, the best of each encounter, they're not likely to survive any more than they're likely to win a tournament.

They may do very well and survive to play bigger rounds. They may do so well, in fact, that they would have finished, oh, second in a tournament. But finishing second in real life, when you're always putting your poker bankroll in jeopardy just means you're broke.

Don't treat your bankroll like you're in a tournament, always raising the limits, until you win the whole thing or go broke. Don't do that.

The danger of crossing the Threshold of Misery

2005-10-06T14:58:00.000-04:00

By Mike Caro

If you want to succeed as a professional level poker player, you've got to be good to your bankroll. To survive as a professional player, you must be good to your bankroll, but many players destroy any hope of success by simply playing poorly when things go bad. They expect to lose $2,000 in a night at the very worst, but then they get behind $3,000. And suddenly, it doesn't matter weather they lose another $200, because they don't feel it. They've crossed their threshold of misery; maxed out their misery, and now, it all feels the same.

But in the long run, all those extra losses, all those bad plays, all that bad judgement baggage you add on when you stop caring, that's what destroys your bankroll.

Next time you're down $2,630 dollars, try to win back $130. That's all. It won't feel like much at the time, but it's a lot better than collapsing strategically and losing $5,000 that night. Yes, losing $2,500 is a lot better than losing $5,000. Sometimes, it doesn't feel different, but when you lose $2,500 instead of $5,000, you have an extra $2,500 to spend. It's hard to think of it that way when you lose, but you have to start thinking that way.

Everything you don't lose is just as real, and just as spendable as what you win. From now on, make quality decisions about the next poker hand, and everything else will take care of itself.

Make quality decisions about your next poker hand. That's all I ask you to do.

Perfect Storm

2005-10-05T14:22:00.000-04:00

Big, huge! I got involved in a 'Perfect Storm' Omaha pot, and it took me to online + in one hand! In less than one week I have gained over $400. Without felting.

Setup, I have large stack, next stack has $50. I raise with AAxx red suited. All call.

Flop, QT3 two diamonds, 3h. Someone raises to 2, on the strength of my nut flush draw, I raise to 4, call and someone who obviously has a straight pushes AI, $22. Call, call, back to me. Guy behind me has $40 left. If he pushes AI, I have $70 left. Well, I'm never folding with these odds, so I raise $60 to push him out. He calls. Runner Runner hearts. Board doesn't pair. $230 pot.

Did I mention I had both the nut diamond and heart flush draw? Yeah, well nobody had a straight flush, so I win.

Money management: I continue to play as I have been, but now I'm saving money: 10% of daily earnings to earn a spot on Grand Tournament V.

It's also my intent to play in larger $ tournaments: Daily, Grand Prix, and Big Deals. I'll also be attempting to win a ticket to Bellagio for the WPT final. That's a 400+20 ticket.

I remember Hans saying: "I've spent 2 thousand trying to learn poker, and then I spent 5 thousand proving that I learned how to play poker." I'm trying to avoid spending that much. He was playing live poker, so those figures are really not unreasonable. Well, I've spent my 2K to learn to play, and I want to avoide spending 5K to prove it. (see early post) I want fellow players to succeed for less, and earn way more.

So close

2005-10-03T10:26:00.000-04:00

I was playing to get into the Grand Tournament IV this past weekend. At 12 noon Saturday, I won the stage I qualifier, and sat in the stage II for the $1000+0 Ticket.

I missed my last shot, finishing 3rd. :(

Close. Oh so close. These single table qualifiers are great. I'll have to be sure and make a stronger effort at them next Grand. Other than that, I did okay this weekend with some small gains.

PAR - happy story!

2005-09-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

I have T8xx in the BB in Omaha. Flop comes TT8. I have the nut house. No other house can beat me. I can only tie. There are like 4-5 other players, so I check my monster.

Turn is 5, The board is not even scary, there are 3 hearts out but who cares? I don't want the river to give someone holding a higher pair a higher boat, so I bet $2 into a $5 pot. I get 4 callers! I'm loving life.

River is a 6 hearts, putting 4 hearts on board, and the SB bets out 2 bucks. Fish on!

I just call, hoping someone behind will raise... yes.. the button raises 2 more, the SB calls, I decide to finesse and only raise 2 more... The button raises again, then the SB re raises 6. Now I'm worried the SB may chase out the button, so I just call. Success! Button raises AI for 8$. The SB calls and I happily push in my last. I'm figure I'm gonna split with one of these guys and the other fella with the nut flush is gonna be sad.

...
wait for it
...

As the freekin machine slides the pot away from me, I realize that the button had T5xx for a smaller boat, and the SB had xx79hearts, rivered the straight flush, scooping the $73 pot. I'm thinking of giving it up, yall. I guess it's my fault for slow playing the damn thing. Then the SB asks who had the Ace flush, just to irritate me.

But I said that this was a happy story, and indeed it is: I was the SB. Yes, I'm flipping the script. I won from the SB, And yes, I did ask who had the Ace high flush.

Over the past 8 days, I figure that I was playing too many hands, and not playing my strong hands aggressively enough. So, correcting that, I seem to be back on track.

PAR Depression

2005-09-28T13:57:00.000-04:00

DROP!

omg. I have been beat about the head and neck heavily... :( in the past 8 days, my bankroll has dropped almost $400)

I'm now back to even since starting this system... Some of it I can attribute to tilting, but not much, perhaps 100.

Totally irritating. Everything I touch turns sour: Flop trips, someone runner runners a flush or straight, I turn nut flush, they river boat, I flop top boat, someone has quads, I get quads, they get SF! Okay, well that last one hasn't happened ...yet.

The worst was preflop; this cat was raising everything, One hand I get AAxx, I call, knowing he'll raise, and he raises to 9. I push him for everything... he calls 30+ preflop with J278, the guy catches heart flush with the 87 for $68 pot.

Sooo close

2005-09-23T10:14:00.000-04:00

Oh geez, I can almost taste it. Im $101 from being flat even online. I've been even online before after a rather large tournament win, but slid back negative. This time, I feel much better about reaching this goal, as I'm earning this money steadily, and I feel very confident that the methods that I'm using to achieve this goal are solid and reliable.

I continue to make marginal plays and get busted, but I seem to be making decent advances every session. I attribute this success to the Stop Winning method. Last night I got very lucky to take 2 large omaha pots with relatively poor play. That was the difference between being up 15 or down 70. I decided to quit up 15.

My mistake is that I was chasing, and poorly. I need to reiterate that I don't chase unless I'm being paid to chase, and I only chase to the nuts. In this scenario, instead of being up 15, I will be up 50 or more.

Approaching milestone

2005-09-22T13:52:00.000-04:00

I am currently $116 from breaking even online. It sounds terrible, but it's been one year playing online to attempt to break even. All told, as a player, I'm currently down $1600. Poker income has provided a great offset of almost $5K.

Last night, things didn't work out for me in Omaha, but I played 1 hand of 7 card stud, and caught a boat that got paid.

All in all, I'm very excited about being 'even' online.

5 Card Stud

2005-09-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

How about that. Yesterday, I made only 5 bucks at PLO, mostly because of loose, aggressive play. But I made 12 or so at limit 5 card stud. Got lucky, I did. I'm not sure I really like that game without tells.

Positive reports

2005-09-20T11:33:00.000-04:00

Bank now at 500. I've cashed out 100, therefore comparatively, I've lost 55 since last posting... Unfortunately, I was over 700, so down 100. It'll come... With continued patient and smart play. I haven't played many tournaments lately, I need to get back to that.

The Stop Winning... stopped

2005-09-19T17:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I stopped winning this weekend. But I attribute this to a little bit of tilt, and quite of bit of loose play. I did manage to recover somewhat, but I am still down $100.

Also, I sadly passed on a pot that could reasonably have made me a lot of $: QQTT, I had to pass when the preflop betting grew too large. But considering my implied odds based on my INITIAL investment, I could have easily made the call of $80 to win $320 (4:1). In all actuality, my odds were $30 (initial invested) to win $320, just under 12:1. Not quite the proper odds. Assuming that a Q or T would have to show to give me a win, I need about 13:1 pot odds to overcome possible straights, flushes, and oversets. Ah well, better thinking next time.

PAR

2005-09-16T09:14:00.000-04:00

Played smart last night, and I was rewarded appropriately. Bank now at 655. At one point I was at 666.23! So I had to keep playing.

Whoops

2005-09-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

Well, last night, I played like an idiot, and lost money. From 630 to 570. Shame, because at one point I was up over 660. :) I was in rooms playing over my head with dumb cards. Should have sat back and waited.

Stop Winning™ theory

2005-09-14T09:06:00.000-04:00

I got a couple of lucky breaks in Omaha last night. I went up vs GeauzzTiger... he raised massive PF, indicating aces. I had 7733 double suited... I just wanted to see the flop to see if I hit, but someone raised after us, and I noticed the odds dictated that I toss the rest of my inital 14 bucks in there.
ace on flop. oh well.
then runner runner flush me holding a stupid 73 suited. I apologized.
Later, I built 28 on another table... this PF raiser every hand raises, I call with aces in the hole... ace on flop. he goes AI..., caller, I call, he rivers a stupid straight... and didn't apologize. Later, same table, same guy, (who is in every hand and pots PF every time) I call, and get a set of 4's. I raise, he reraises, I call.... He turns a straight, (I didn't know) I raise, he goes AI, I call, board pairs, and I get all the money.
Grinnin like a damn fool. I love it when I leave a room with 132 when I was supposed to leave with 67.
This theory is shaping up to be a much more important success than Idiot Detector™
Big side note. Sitting out with an amount is the same as leaving with that amount, and felting will not reset your buyin. Do not rebuy into that same table.

Stop Winning™

2005-09-14T08:34:00.000-04:00

Stop Winning™ is a bankroll management idea that has come from different sources. I'm sure I haven't really invented anything here. I give it a funny name because, ah, I want to. It seems to be a very solid concept on how to extract solid $ from a table.

Buyin for 1/3 max at the lowest limit. You should be one of the shorter stacks. As such, you have a great opportunity to be doubled or tripled, but your max loss is only your initial 1/3 buyin. You have a specific target; you leave when you have 4/3rds of the buyin. You stop here. This is your Stop Winning point. This is level 1.

Once you leave, you buyin at 1/3 of the next limit. You are now not only freerolling, you have 2x your initial buyin in your pocket. If you should lose your buyin, you start again at the lowest limit. Do not rebuy at the same table. If you advance 3 levels, you should have almost 14 initial buyins.

Benefits:
You should now be able to play without mentally being too attached to your money. After the first level, you have none of your money at risk in this scenario. At higher levels, even losing 'everything' will leave you with a massive gain on your initial investment.

You play at much higher limits than your bankroll would normally allow.
You're increasing your 'main' bankroll by leaps and bounds each level.

Drawbacks:
You may have to leave a very profitable table when you reach your Stop Winning point.

It's a Ponzi pyramid scheme. And there'll be no shortage of people to support this pyramid. So far, so good. I've enjoyed my largest cash table gains in the last 2 weeks since starting Stop Winning™, even with my normal basket of rivers and bad beats. I'm getting excited.

All this assumes, of course that your bankroll needs to pay attention to these types of swings.

The basic problem with gambling.

2005-08-27T08:35:00.000-04:00

Two cowboys are riding their horses together on the prairie. They come upon a big pile of manure. Claude says, "I will bet you $1000 that I can eat all of this crap." Harrison agrees to the bet, so the Claude eats the entire pile and wins $1000.

After some time come across another pile of manure. This time Harrison bets that he too can eat the whole pile for $1000. Claude agrees and Harrison eats the entire pile and wins the bet.

They ride on. After a while Claude says, "Do you realize we each just ate a pile of manure for nothing?"

Rocks Down!

2005-08-23T09:24:00.000-04:00

What the hell happened to my stack?! I went up with the finish to just under 300, and it seems I have been bad-beaten back down to pre win levels. Well, lots of dumb decisions. And one extra horrid live bad beat from Chuck. Never mind. Back at 'em. It's hard to be positive when you get here.

But I do have good news: I saved a bunch... Sorry. sorry. I really do have good news. I decided to sit in a 5+1 and a 11+1 game and bluff a hell of a lot more. Not by over betting the pot, but bluffing by continuously attacking the pot with bets of just under 1/2 to 2/3rds the pot. I tried this with 96off. Wouldn't you know it, my bluff was 'ruined' when I hit the straight. I attacked again, and the fellow folded. The good news is that by playing the maniac, I did so much better and had a lot more fun!

Whoa, I just had an epiphany. It's time for me to reread Doyle's NL betting style, take cues from Hansen and utilize the mastery of Harrington. I'm playing Harrington's style as solid as it is, leaves my stack a little short. I need to aggressively build a stack to be able to have that cushion to allow myself to have bad beats, and still survive. More on this later

What a Bastard

2005-08-16T10:09:00.000-04:00

Last night I 'won' a short handed SNG. After eliminating 3rd place, I was heads up with my last opponent with our stacks virtually even. Immediately, my opponent was set to away. I quickly whittled down this check/fold pushover till he returned 6-7 hands later, and finished him off with over cards.

Was this 'morally' wrong? It's happened to me many times in the past. I have to step away for a moment at a critical point, and find my stack shaved down to nothing.

I then stepped into an Omaha room with 18... 12.... 2... 12... 35... 34 retire. Got lucky a couple of times. The average pot of 27$ really dictated that I should never have sat down in the room to begin with.

I saw few more books I want to read when I went to a head-up tournament this weekend. Pretty dismal result there... 0 for 6 matchups. Oh well. I thought I was a good headsup player. The blinds were pretty silly tho... the M's started off at 13, vs 50 for a typical online tournament.

Cracked!

2005-08-12T09:11:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting with $4K early in a 10+1 multi table tournament.
I have a tight image, and in the small blind I get AA. blinds 75/150
The $8K chip leader, who has been in every hand raises 3x BB from mid position, $450.
I reraise to 1K. He calls.
flop: xxK
I bet 1K, he puts me all-in, I call, He shows KQ off.
turn: K
I hate this game sometimes.

On the other hand, I have a list of recent successes:

That very crack continues to validate Idiot Detector™
We now have over 2,500 shared player notes!
IM coaching of players has resulted in measured improved results. No known cases of collusion.
Nux Vomica has reached a cap of 20 players.
4 members made final tables yesterday including a 1st by GaHurricane
My personal online bankroll has recovered by placing 4th in a 10$ MTT.
All group particpants seem pleased with how Nux Vomica is being run.

I do need a tad more particpation by some MIA members.

Update: I found the blog of the guy who beat me:

I'm sitting with $8K early in a 10 + 1 multi table tournament
I have a loose image, and get a decent starting hand on the button
blinds 75/150
As the big stack, I feel it paramount that I raise 3x BB to 450.
This knucklehead re-raises me to 1K, I call
flop xxK
He bets 1K, and I quickly put him all in, he's been paying tight. He shows AA just as I suspected.
turn comes K just as I expected.
I love this game sometimes... I went out shortly after that, I had Q 9 and on the flop came AA4 and of course I went all in and some guy had an A, what are the odds?

Quitters

2005-08-08T09:54:00.000-04:00

I had some team members quit earlier. I'm mad. I have stuck it out, thru the beats, and these so called superior players want to quit: I wrote these posts. By the way, I'm down again at $185, but coming up. Bad beats only. Solid play.

Who's a poker player, and who's a baby? I want to know now! I'm mad as hell. We are trying to be poker sharks around here. We're not stupid flounders. What? You think you're invincible? You got hurt because of bad beats?! Piss off.

I gave some serious thought to erasing some posts. But I'm not going to.

I got AA cracked 3 separate times yesterday. I saw Kyle go out. It was tough. He flopped a boat and got sucked out runner runner for the straight flush. It was terrible.

I saw the final hands of the Grand III. I saw Hapkido1 and Hapkido2 go out on horrendous beats. I've experienced countless bad beats. I start to worry if bad beats don't happen every 5 minutes. I don't have a reasonable number of final tables for the last couple of months because of bad beats.

But I'm not gonna pack up my toys and go home. These beats are a part of what we are and what we do. These beats don't just happen at PokerRoom. Bad beats happen at online at every poker site, bad beats crush pros playing live, bad beats appear at home games. They are indeed built into the game.

We experience them more than other players because we are solid players. We don't get to enjoy suck outs because when the money goes in, we're ahead.

So suck it up. Or go knit a sweater. Your choice.

If you're interested in getting all pissy because of bad beats, now would be a good time to resign from this group. I believe attitude, perseverance and skill are the keys to winning, fish rely on luck.

A Conscious-Decision Update

2005-07-29T09:36:00.000-04:00

This is an update to this post. I have to say that the conscious-decision theory is a resounding success. Nearly 80% of the time, the conscious decision results in a dominating hand, sometimes with as poor a hand as Jack-rag.

I also hereby rename conscious decision to Idiot Detector™ (ID™) And I do proclaim it a very useful thing. It's great for identification of dumb people.

I will also remove links from Pokah! to this blog. It really only serves to educate people who are in games with me, about me. I will keep links to this blog from Nux Vomica.

Do I dare make adjustments?!

2005-07-26T14:18:00.000-04:00

I have to consider if i dare make adjustments to Harrington's strategies. Of course I do. Having come in 25/707 last night, I think that Dan's suggestions causes me to loosen up too early too much, changing my image too soon. Allowing myself to slip down in standings is okay a little to allow myself to get to better finishing points. I also have been ignoring the 'Q' factor. Must re-read.

Felted

2005-07-26T09:52:00.000-04:00

Bummer, I felted last night. I reloaded 150, and entered a game I said I hated 20K G rebuy, played very conservative, and cashed 25/707.

Bad move to knock myself out. I fell in love with 99 of all hands.

Sharing Player Notes

2005-07-22T15:01:00.000-04:00

The Nux Vomica Group is starting to co-share their player notes. We have 3 players' notes and they cover almost 500 players. I hope to collect at least 1500 player's notes, or more. I should remember to ask Nux Vomica if they want to share with The Empire

Bankroll

2005-07-21T10:02:00.000-04:00

Did okay last night, won a short for $70 and ended up even from early shorts losses, and an Omaha table. Elvis Lives posted to my guestbook a snippet from Doyle's SS2. Basically, you have to change gears: loose when everyone's tight, and tight when everyone's loose, so that way you get paid when you go in with your big hands.

Here Piggy Pig Pig

2005-07-20T16:06:00.000-04:00

Okay, This has nothing to do with poker. Well tough. It's my blog. E Doug R If you're thinking from this that I lost some money last night, you're right, smarty pants

ROFL

2005-07-19T23:35:00.000-04:00

Oh, and you know how somtimes people post multiple threads on the same thing? I saw this link were this guy was flaming such a post. Funny.

Bankroll Hit!

2005-07-19T11:49:00.000-04:00

I haven't been posting due to bankroll depression. I don't like to post when I don't have good news. I should post regardless.

I had a bankroll of $500 but it's been slowly sliding to a low of $28. Here are the reasons for this slide as I can determine:

I have been trying out new games: 7 card stud, 5 card draw.
I changed my strategy in Omaha, and went on tilt, playing more than my usual 18$ buyin in an attempt to regain my money from what I thought was a soft table.
I have been playing medium size multi table tournaments, with poor results (no cashes)

In order to turn this situation around, I need to play my strengths to regain my bankroll:

I will play short handed tournaments
I will play medium size multi table tournaments, with better results
I will play Omaha with my usual 18$ buyin, mindful of tables that play over my head.

Advice to a beginner

2005-07-18T23:28:00.000-04:00

Assuming you're playing real money, and low limit HE, as opposed to microblinds NL, then I would advise the book for you is Winning Low Limit Hold 'em by Lee Jones.
There are two conflicting bits of advice on this thread about your playing 30% of openers. One guy says tighen up, the other guy says you're too tight.
I think you're playing too many hands, but there is validity to the get looser theory, but I wouldn't recommend it for now: You'll have too much variance, which is what you say want to avoid.
Play better starters. That's a great way to reduce your variance. In limit, you need position, and you need to stop chasing: From now on, do not chase any flush or straight draw that you don't have 4 cards on the flop... no gutshots, either.
Do not enter a pot with two cards just because they're sooted. Consider all your pockets unsuited, and judge your entry into the pot on that basis.
No help on flop, GET OUT.
Learn odds. Master odds. Do not progress any farther (increasing limits) until you know odds inside and out.
Did I mention Lee Jones? Stop playing, go to Borders and buy the book. It's an easier read than Sklansky. Once you're done with that, read Sklansky.
Oh, if you have a bunch of people in the pot ahead of you, and you have low sooted connectors, you have pot odds to play, but of course, now you need position. It's all in Lee's book.

I wonder what they're chasing

2005-07-07T22:58:00.000-04:00

I'm in PL Omaha, watching a hand. Flop is Q38. There's a raise / reraise battle, and before the last allin bet, the fellow says, "Flopped nuts. I wonder what he's chasing?" He then calls and the runner runner disaster answers his question, poor fellow.

The very next hand, flop comes 4J8, (two diamonds) and I have JJxx, I bet and get raised pot. Calling would put me all-in.

I don't think he has a lower set. He probably had two diamonds, and double gutshot straight draw, and runner runner possibilities: Say 3 outs for the bottom straight. 3 outs for the top straight, 6 outs for the flush, 2 outs for runner runner something. 14 outs give or take. (I figure less than the actual because any board pairing gives me a boat or better.)

I need the case jack, 6 outs to pair the board, or a freak runner runner pairing for 3 more outs by the river, giving me 10 outs to improve. And I already have the best hand. He's chasing, and I'm only a 1.4:1 underdog for improving.

Just before I push in the last of my money, I type, "Flopped nuts. I wonder what he's chasing?" I didn't catch any of my outs. And, in the end, and 84$ richer, I knew what he was chasing. BRILLIANT!

It paid for getting busted earlier in the 30+3 NL HE tourney where I flopped a set and guy caught runner runner to make me bust in 3rd place.

A conscious decision

2005-07-07T22:40:00.000-04:00

I find it suspicious when people make huge bets trying to 'protect' a preflop hand in a pot that they choose to enter. I frequently see a preflop bet of 10x or more the BB when the pot is only $30. Risk $300 to win $30? It makes no sense. One time, sure. Two times, and I will apply the following:

I suspect that the types of hands that are bet like this are non-premium hands. I find these bets are revealing of hands no better than a mid pair and as poor as A-rag or worse. If I discover a player in the habit of making such bets early in a tournament, I will reraise all-in with any pair or overcards, and track win percentage.

At worst, I may be behind with pair to an overpair, or I may have 2 live cards vs. a weak ace. Heads up, excepting the pair to overpair, I'm theorizing that these are great chances to move ahead early or get into another game quickly.

Setting Goals

2005-07-06T20:59:00.000-04:00

This seems a good place to start setting goals.

My ultimate goal: to compete in this arena and be considered by most to be listed as a top 20 player.
Why not number one? I will strive to be absolute best player ever. However the element of luck does indeed play a role in this game. I believe being a top 20 player does qualify someone to be the best player on any given day.

Goals:
Improve enough to win a great payout, defined July 2005 as a single $10,000 win. (online)

Earn a payout of $25,000 or more. (online)

Enter the live pro tour circuit.

Make the final table of a live pro tour circuit.

Be a force to be considered by any player on a live pro tour event or earn a payout of $50,000 or more (live)

Win a live pro tour event or earn a payout of $250,000 or more (live)

Be listed as a top 20 player, by a credible publication or by most top 20 players.

River Weekend.

2005-07-05T19:01:00.000-04:00

You hear folks in PokerRoom sometimes complain about the 'Doom Switch'. It is rumored that function causes any play you make to be a losing play; you start with KK, raise, T3o stays in to win with a 4 card flush, and tripe like that. I don't believe it. It all averages out.

That said, this past weekend, (monday in particular) was a river 'Box O Rocks' sort of weekend. My only solace is that lesser players would have lost more than I did with the situations that I had. Onward, upward.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams ... glitter in the dark near Tanhauser Gate. All those ... moments will be lost ... in time, like tears ... in rain. Time ... to die." No reason for the quote. Just felt like dropping it here.

Yay

2005-07-03T02:06:00.000-04:00

2 first place finishes in 1 week:
1/123 in a 10+1
1/29 in a OSOP qualifier.

News Updates

2005-06-29T11:28:00.000-04:00

First, the bad news:

The 1/2 Eyed Jacks and the One Eyed Jacks have been disbanded.

The good news:

Nux Vomica, (AKA poison nuts) have been formed. We have a great group to start:

Hapkido1, a final table attendee from GTII, (1,000$ buy-in online event.)

ranchaus18, new to the group, but a very excellent player.

Big R1, 'Jacks orphan' (Any ex-Jack will likely be accepted)

Box O Rocks, 'Jacks orphan' currently at 4 final tables / month

wizum, close friend... (Just joking, wizum has several final tables under his belt.)

Dr Blizzuff, final table player and Omaha regular

Hope to add very soon:

RuffDiesel, excellent player and close friend

EvilTwin666, new to online play, an excellent live player.

LaserBeans, Omaha regular

Minors

2005-06-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

I popped into a limit table to even out my stack, before switching to bet on bet (I had 12.90¢) As I was trying to either win 10¢ or lose 90¢, I was concentrating more on blinds and addition / subtraction than playing, and I realized that this was a super powder-puff table. I started playing, and in half an hour I was up $20. Hmmm. I've almost forgotten about limit play in my anxiousness to play NL. I need to brush-up some more and see how I do with these games. Perhaps it's time I considered playing $3/6 online. I have the bankroll for this type of game more than I do NL.

Small Theory on player attitudes

2005-06-21T08:27:00.000-04:00

Here's a little theory of mine:

A player who is loose tends to believe that other players have worse cards than what their bets reflect. A player who is tight tends to believe that other players have better cards than what they have.

Preflop, an overbet of the pot may cause a tight player may fold because he believes you have a very strong hand. A loose player will tend to believe that you are bluffing, and he'll play along with you. If that player catches even a low pair, he may now believe there is a legitimate chance to win the pot.

Books I recommend

2005-06-16T09:49:00.000-04:00

Quite a few people have asked me about books I recommend. Here is that list.

A sense of accomplishment

2005-06-12T23:29:00.000-04:00

7th place at PR GP this evening. It's my first $1k+ payout.

On a separate, but related matter, I'm quite upset at my internet connection because 15 of the last 20 hands I played I wasn't there. I kept getting booted out of the game multiple times. Honestly, I don't think that would have changed my standing though.

Oh, I lost most of my pokah! page.

Like Guinness?

2005-06-10T21:30:00.000-04:00

The Joy of Getting Lucky (in poker)

2005-06-10T09:05:00.000-04:00

I love it when a plan comes together. I sit in an Omaha table for 20$ (50$ buyin max). I see a player is on a lot at the table: zzz-besthand. I say hello, and announce that I'm just there for a hit n run.

My first hand hand is T99x, I'm blinded in, but I'm an Omaha flop whore anyway, I would see the flop with virtually any hand...

98x is the flop. I bet 2$, this cat after me bets 4$ (he has 68$ in his stack), and one caller. With the pot now at $13, I move in my remaining 17$ with top set, after all, this is what a hit n run is all about.

The cat calls, but I end up with jack high straight. 44$ pot. Yay... My work here is done. One hand and out. (by the way, zzz-besthand is having hardwood floors installed.)

Oh, I will soon post personal pictures due to popular demand.

Good News / Bad News

2005-06-09T10:13:00.000-04:00

Good News: I played a 6$ qualifier and won 1st place ticket to a 50+4 tournament.

Bad News: I played a winning ticket in a 44$ tournament Stage II qualifier... 1st thru 9th paid a 320$ ticket to the final qualifier to WSOP. 10th paid 200$. 11th, speaking from sad experience, pays a lot of frustration. I did play well however. That's a positive.

A new style

2005-06-03T07:35:00.000-04:00

Apologies to theosopy

Texas Hold'em starting hands:

The best starting hands are those with good drawing potential. A little thought tells us that hands like 10-5 offsuit are therefore the best starting hands, since such a hand can make any possible straight (from 5-high to ace-high), and 2 possible flushes.

Nevertheless, with such starting hands, it is important to drive out trash hands before the flop. Some loose players are content to play weak starting hands like ace-king suited, even though it can only make one straight and one flush. When one is dealt a premium hand like 10-5 offsuit, it is important to play it for a raise or a re-raise (or indeed, a re-re-raise) to drive such trashy hands out.

Pocket pairs such as pocket aces should be regarded as marginal starting hands. With a hand like this, it is preferable to limp-in and see the flop cheaply. The reasons are obvious: although such a hand can make one of 2 different flushes, its straight-making potential is limited; indeed, half the hand is essentially wasted since any straight will only use one of the hole cards.

Pocket aces are of course the worst of a bad lot, since they are less likely to make a straight than any other hand.

A pocket pair is also less likely to make a set (three-of-a-kind) since there is only one such set it can make, while a premium hand like 10-5 can make two different sets.

Naturally, a hand like 10-5 offsuit is extremely likely to make a full-house or a quad if it fails to make a straight or flush. Again, the reasons are obvious upon reflection: any card other than a 10 or a 5 helps this hand make a straight by the river, and half of those also help it make a flush, so the only realistic way 10-5 offsuit can fail to improve to a straight or flush is if several 10s or 5s fall on the board.

Again taking 10-5 offsuit as our example, in the improbable event of 3 cards falling on the flop that completely rule out a straight or a flush (e.g. K 7 2 rainbow) you should still play on, especially if the pot has been jammed pre-flop. Here's why: with such pre-flop action, it is extremely likely that your opponents also have premium hands, but there is a strong chance that theirs are weaker hands like 9-4. In this case, your 10-high will almost certainly hold up. Raise and re-raise in this situation.

Finally, a word about bluffing on the river. You must always be willing to get all of your chips in with no hand, even when you put your opponent on a good or great hand. With sufficiently authoritative betting, you may even be able to get an experienced opponent to lay down the absolute nuts out of pure shock.

This concludes our lesson. Play with my "Super Duper System", and all your opponents will tell you how great your Poker is and how much they enjoy playing with such a skilled opponent. There is no higher accolade than to be warmly welcomed into every game by one's fellow players.

Next week: Omaha High: aggressive play with bottom pair.

Dan Harrington

2005-06-02T22:42:00.000-04:00

Dan's new book is out! I'm first in line like a starwars nerd.

Dry Spell

2005-05-28T14:27:00.000-04:00

Okay, for the past week I have been sucked out, rivered and crushed in an amazing variety of ways. My betting style has been affected. And that's not good. I've become timid and emotional. If I don't get out of this slump soon, I shall be forced to take... a break.

Tilt - o - whirl

2005-05-25T20:47:00.000-04:00

Last night, I was so burnt - I got rivered out of 4 different tournaments. I was pretty frustrated. I got hit by a 4 outer, and a 2 outer. It's the downside of this game. I must work on my personal emotions. It's what a good professional would do...

Advanced Poker Players Only

2005-05-24T10:57:00.000-04:00

If you're going to become a professional, I think this is essential learning material. You simply can't be any good at poker if you can't do this.

Advice from friends:

2005-05-23T21:27:00.000-04:00

These aren't my thoughts, so I'll quote:
My friend's basic strategy:

Aggressive as hell until I get to at least 4-5K before 1st break. Then tight solid.

After break, pick off small stacks only when in position. Avoid other big stacks.

After second break (assuming I have 10-20K) ULTRA aggressive !!!! No free flops for anyone.

With 2-3 tables left....back into slow down mode.

At final table, I become a moron, so I can't give advice there as I am the king of 5th place finishes.

Situation 1 - You are a chip leader at final table: YOu MUST be consevative here and let other people blow themselves up.

Situation 2 - You are short stacked at final table: You must be aggressive here and look to get into coin toss situations with other players to double up.

Situation 3 - You are a medium stack at final table: Aggressive aganst all small stacks and avoid ALL confrontations with big stacks. PERIOD !!!! (Note: this can be TOUGH, as you often seem to get your "good hands" when a big stack is already playing the hand. Just be patient though and do not play versus the big stacks.)

Another response...
i like to just chill and get top 3 unless im getting amazing cards(rarely happens) if not then i just relaz and let them knock each other out

This is the best advice I've ever gotten, thanks 10691069:

This is how I try to play in a nutshell. Here is my advice and I think the reason I have had some success. Be very patient. Play the top hands only. Don't call early position with hands like 109off or qjoff and even when you call late with those hands and are raised by a later player don't feel like you have to call. Play premium hands, call with low pocket pairs, suited high cards, raise above the minimum with any hand you raise with. Raising 1x the blind is meaningless, If you gonna raise, RAISE and then have a planned amount of bluff chips if need be for the flop. Then know when to get out if reraised or other player calls your flop bet and you don't have nothing by the turn. Check the turn and get out. Not sure if any of this helps, but you must be patient. Look for big hands out in early position. See flops on your small blind and big blinds and flop two pair. I get alot of my chips by playing horrible cards on my bb or sb. No chasing flushes or straights when you can't afford it. Most players never win because they play horrible hands and chase. It takes alot of luck to be at a final table, but it takes more skill

Dealing

2005-05-22T23:32:00.000-04:00

All right. Aside from playing the game, I also deal. This evening was nice, I dealt a tournament and earned $173. Pleasant

Getting rivered and attending Luck's Chapel

2005-05-22T14:53:00.000-04:00

On one hand, won a ticket to stage 2 WSOP.

On the other hand, first my AA gets rivered, then, after I recover, my KK gets rivered in the same tournament . 20th place. I thought my playing was good but just unlucky. Just to make me happy, the joker who called my allin [he only had about 2k more than me; it should have killed him] got busted after being the huge chip leader by continuing to play like a maniac. Oh, I'm sorry, did I misspell idiot?

A while ago, I wrote this bit to make myself feel better during times like these:

Welcome to Luck's Chapel.

Brethren, I hear you. I understand you. You cry out: Where is the justice! Where can I find solace from the 2 outer river beat? How is it that the maniac, and the poker juvenile gains luck's blessing, and I, the solid stone of good hands and patient grinding receive a eyeful of electronic felt?

Brothers and sisters of the gamblerhood, You have come to Luck's Chapel to find the answer, and I read to you now, words of solace. I read to you words of comfort. Sorely missing, I read now, words of Guidance.

Turn with me now to The Theory of Poker, Chapter 1, verse 14. We see the great brother Bobby Balwin speaking, verse 14:

"They shall draw out upon you."

You see, it is their way. It is their blessing to draw out. That is how they win the battle.

Now I hear you. You cry out again, Pastor Rocks, this is no solace! You said you would help me!

I knew you would wonder. Look with me now to Verse 13, which tells you how to win the war. You see, there is a preface to verse 14, amen, and it reads thus: verse 13

"If you are an excellent player,"

Praise Sister Luck. Praise Sister Luck! He did not say average, he did not say good, He said EXCELLENT! Brethren, This bad beat is not a curse, it is a reward! Here, we see that only the excellent players shall be drawn out upon.

Then go out, now, to all the tables and wear, not your winnings, but wear your beats as badges of honor. Consider how many times you have whupped before, and how many times you shall whup hence. For each beating you receive, your rewards shall flow silently to your ever growing account.

Amen.

First Post

2005-05-21T11:36:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm just getting on the bandwagon. This is going to be primarily for my poker knowledge, my thoughts and encouragement for me.

I remember this guy saying:
"I've spent 2 thousand trying to learn poker, and then I spent 5 thousand proving that I learned how to play poker." I'm trying to avoid spending that much.

I've just learned of a new link: 2+2 Forums There seems to be a lot of great information there.

Multi Table Tournament Style

2005-05-20T19:27:00.000-04:00

Last night, I made my 4th final table, and once again, I squeaked it in there: 8/323 in a 5+.5.

So far, here's been the formula:
Early game: big blind up to $50 or so..
Loose, baby, loose. See the flop with top 25 hands. If you get 2 pair or better push, baby, and take that pot down.

Critical: In the BB and the SB, don't be afraid to pay up to 2x the BB if there are good enough odds: If you are the SB, and there is a simple raise and 3 callers, there are virtually no two cards that don't have a positive expected value for that price. CALL. No hit on the flop, drop it.
Anytime you get a good amount above the average switch to mid-game practice.

Mid Game: 'Half the field is gone' to 'payout structure'

Tight - AA thru 99, (lower pairs if cheap) AK, AQ(suited?) Raise. 2x BB means nothing. 3x or more
Critical - If the flop misses you, be prepared to take a nice bluff at the pot. If it doesn't work, let it go. Don't get strung out on chasing. If you get an awesome draw, take the lead.
See flops on the BB and SB and flop 2 pair.

Late game:
I dunno, I'm lost here. I just try and survive to the final table.

Single Table Tournament - Short Handed

2005-05-05T19:32:00.000-04:00

5H STT Tour

I spent a little time this weekend writing down how I play the 5 handed single table tournament. I only see 4 positions in the shorts. Every round, you're the BB, SM or button 3 out of 5 hands. This means you're gonna see flops, and in my opinion, you need to see plenty of them to get the best chance to get to headsup, which is my objective. I give myself a 40% chance of a win when I'm shortstacked going in heads up.
Early play - BB: $10 to $100.

BB:
Almost a free look every time. If there is a double of the BB from under the gun, and one caller, pot odds dictate a call with any two cards.

SB:
You see the flop for half price, almost every time. I'll only give it up if there are no callers and I don't have anything of a hand, especially early in the tournament. If there is a double of the BB and two callers, again, you have pot odds to make a call with any two cards.

Button, and next to button:
Oddly, even with position, I'm much more apt to call only with better cards. I have no reason to to play here, and I need something in the way of cards for a looksee. Even though the button is position, I tend to believe that position matters less in these games than in full tables.

Third from button or Under the gun:
Here, I like to see something at least pleasant; Ax, two cards 19 or more, High suits. suited connectors.

This all sounds like a recipie for disaster. But my goal is to see a lot of flops. I've got to do this as cheaply as possible. I've spent very little money seeing the flop, and given I get no pair or no draw on the flop, I'm done. On the other hand, Top pair, 2 pair, or a great draw to 1st or second nut straight or flush is worthy of a half - to pot sized stab at a win. Anything less than a reraise is little cause for concern. Your superior powers of observation will let you know if you're in trouble from a superior hand.

What this accomplishes is enough catches on the flop enough to make up for the loose play, and your aggressive style should steadily increase your ammunition. If your stack dwindles too much, fall back into a tighter mode.

Because you're only watching 5 people, you should get excellent reads on every player relatively quickly. Pay less attention to your weaker opponents: the poor bettors (oversized bets), the rocks and the pure maniac. Pay more attention to an aggressive tight player, or a controlled maniac, because these will likely be your competition when it's heads up.
Mid Game - BB: 100-200
Once your stack hits 2500, you've reached a good goal. Change gears, revert to a more conservative style. Try to maintain/slowly increase untill heads up. The blinds should increase and make folks desparate enough to whittle down the competition by the time blinds get to. Worst case, you will be against an opponent who thinks you will be a docile, easy target, who has a stack of about 4k.

late game - BB:200+
If you still have 3 players, the situation is becoming more volatile. It will be tougher to maintain a lead or a decent stack. Use your mid game conservative image for successful selective aggression. Keep an eye out for stealing oppourtunities. Avoid doubling the shortstack at all costs.

Heads up: Worst case, you catch second, and you've paid for your game. I think this is the proper attitude to have when playing here. Keep in mind to be patient, but remember to be bolder, the shorter your stack. I find an opponent is much more likely to call an all in rather than a nearly all-in bet.

All this said, at heads up, instantly change gears. Be a controlled maniac. Raise with any face, Trap with the top 10 hands. Always call the big blind and a simple raise even with trash (if the flop comes trash, have a crack at it, even if it misses you), but never call a truly raised pot with nothing. When you raise prelop rarely go more than 3x BB. You need action. Drop the fight quickly if it will damage you and you don't believe you have the best hand. Victory, (or something well worth your time) will be yours soon.

General Advice

2005-02-14T19:32:00.000-05:00

I've gotten away from 'trapping' almost entirely. I will only trap with 1st or 2nd nuts. This advice would not help you with the AQ situation you just told me about, however. Not much would help you with that destruction, save a good live read.
::
Your only source of reads online are the bets folks make. Your table image is based on the bets you make. Early in the game, when I start betting, I want folks to understand that I am willing, and anxious to go allin, and with great hands: AA, KK, QQ, AK, JJ, and Ax suited. I will play aggressively with TT-77, and Kx suited + A(highcard) I play tight, which keeps me out of a lot of hands, and preserves my stack. When I get into a pot, at minimum, I will do a simple raise. So when I do get in a pot, at any time, I'll move-in with my stack, which should be a scary thing.

I'll also drop a good hand when an unfavorable flop comes out - 3 Flush or straight on board, esp low, where small connectors could complete my demise.

I'll drop against hard bets, but not against maniacs playing like dumbasses, though you must realize even they get a hand every once in a while as well.

This sets up the end game, should I get that far.

Later on, when I need some money, I can take a risk and scare out the more active players who recognize what I do in a pot. Heads up, or maybe just prior, I switch up and go maniac, getting into every hand with even 72off, using every tool in the book to win that hand. Maybe a lose a hand on purpose to get more action, and then playing tight and snag a great hand soon after.

The common thread here is Aggression, aggression, aggression.

Prelog

2003-10-15T12:00:00.000-04:00

I've just starting playing at an underground cardroom here in Atlanta. I'm playing 3-6 limit poker with these group of guys and I'm having fun at it. It's a shame that all my knowlege of the game comes from playing the computer in limit poker, but very good for these guys, as I am a great producer for them.