btimm challenge update #3
29 February 2008
Finished up my requisite hands at about 10pm on Friday (nothing like bringing it down to the wire). Final stats below... gotta love finishing strong. Don't know if this is good enough to win, but I'm quite pleased with my results overall. Would have been even better if I didn't go all "Noel-like" (peten2toms) and sit when I was not in the right frame of mind (bye bye 1.5BI in 30 hands).
5,120 hands (3 hands 50nl / remainder 100nl)
+$662.69
6.50 ptbb/100
Posted byM0NIKER at 10:11 PM 1 comments
weekly update #7
28 February 2008
18 Feb - 24 Feb:
3 hands (50nl) --- fish I followed didn't like me sitting next to him and left
$3.15
105.00 ptbb/100
4,289 hands (100nl)
$521.63
6.08 ptbb/100
Pretty good week for me, both in terms of hand totals and results. Since I wanted to participate in btimm's challenge this forced me to get more hands in during the weekend than I was used to. I think I ended up nitting my game up to compensate with the fact that I was 5 tabling vs. fish, and I'm not really pleased with that. In general, I just don't have enough free time available to me right now to put in 5k hand weeks, so I shouldn't be pushing to achieve this volume. One day, sure, but not right now as I attempt to retool my game and ensure that I'm making proper decisions at all times based on table dynamics (c).
Another thing I plan on doing is moving some of my play back to PokerStars in mid-March (need to clear out the remainder of my Absolute bonus $ first... free money what???). The reasoning behind this is the fact that the majority of players on AP are just so horrible that I'm not feeling like I'm getting the requisite experience playing against aggressive players that I need in order to become a winning $200nl+ player. Hopefully the knowledge I've gained in the past few months transfers over and I can continue my winning play across both sites. In preparation of this shift I'll need to revamp my PAHud display for PokerStars, as I've begun using many more stats to aid my play in the past few months. I'm thinking about mimicking the FTP layout used by tannenj (check out his recent 400nl CR vids if you haven't). I really want to get the most out of my PAHud and the fact that I have a very big DB of observed hands for both AP and PStars (ty malfaire) without getting to the point where my screen looks like a warzone (see appleseed's layout and your eyes will bleed -- I cringe just thinking about it).
The Good:
Hand 1
CO's limp/call (playing 48/3) combined with his chk/raise min on the flop led me to believe that he was either on some sort of a combo draw or had made a set of 5's on the flop. Versus the broader portion of his range, which included all sorts of flush and straight draws, I think I need to be re-raising this pot to protect my hand. Too many turn cards can come that would kill my action, and I think there's a good chance that he may be willing to get it all in here with a draw regardless. Turns out I had him completely dominated, which is always fun for me. Thoughts on the flop action?
Hand 2
CO is playing 18/12/2.1 over 200+ hands. Was contemplating c-betting here, as I'd do this with most hands that I am 3betting from the BB when an ace flops, but this villain had a flop AF of 10.0 so I figured I'd try to gain some value by letting him bet into me. His bet was so weak here that I didn't want to go for a chk/raise and blow him off of a hand that he appears to have liked (thinking maybe AK, AJ, or possibly TT/JJ). Opted to re-evaluate on the turn, and as it was relatively safe opted to check it back to him again to see what he would do (sidenote: pot was $42 vs. his remaining $39 so I figured I could get it all in on the river even if he opted to check the turn). Obviously villain obliges and fires the turn and we get it all in with me an 80% fav. Ship it.
Hand 3
UTG+1 is a "regular" who is playing 44/2/0.6 over 4k hands (yeah, gotta love AP). I've been in a ton of hands with this guy and know that he is calling down every street with almost any piece of the flop (WTSD 38%; W$SD 48%). Villain chk/calls my obligatory flop c-bet and I instantly know that he has a weak made hand. The fun thing about this villain is that I've seen him fire near pot out of position with a strong made hand, so I am 100% sure he doesn't have a set and very near 100% sure he doesn't have QT when he checks the turn. The rest of the hand is just pure value. I think that my history and notes on this guy really paid off in this hand as there are some instances where I will check the turn Q in hopes of getting a bluff from villains on the river -- this was clearly not the case in this hand.
The Bad:
Hand 4
Gotta love when the table empties out and you're heads up against the fish that you sat at the table for in the first place. Then you really have to love when he wants to get it all in vs. your set. What you really don't love is when he shows up with a higher set. Oops. I really don't think I can get away from this hand as said fish would be making this same exact play as light as QK, and I'm 90% sure of that. Oh, and for the record, he insta-bailed after this hand. kthxbye
Hand 5
Also gotta love posting hands that make you want to vomit when you look at them post-session. Button was playing 22/18/2.7 with an Att/St. of 38% (note to readers: this is a completely irrelevant stat in this situation, as he is obviously not attempting to steal the blinds). Unfortunately, I misused this stat to conclude that he was 3betting this hand light and put in a 4bet with my TT (fail!). I then decided to call a 5bet shove with my lowly TT (fail x2!). At least the poker gods put me straight by teasing me and then smacking me into oblivion. Note to self, TT is not a good 100BB AI preflop hand. Learn that. LEARN IT!!!!
Hand 6
UTG+1 is playing 32/2/0.5 and CO is playing 60/3/0.4 (wow, just wow) so I feel obligated to raise up PF with AJo. Opting to chk/call this flop vs. such terrible players is mistake #1. Should certainly be content with c-betting this and taking it down, as with such passive players I'm not getting any value out of AT and below or pocket pairs in the long run. Chk/calling the turn is pretty bad too. The worst possible thing to do on the river though is to put out a small value bet and call a reraise by such a passive player. Note to self: don't be such an idiot, you are losing this hand 99.999% of the time. Uglies.
Posted byM0NIKER at 12:09 PM 6 comments
btimm challenge update 2
Haven't been able to get much play in since the weekend, and even when I have it's been suboptimal (hates self):
21 Feb - 27 Feb:
4431 hands (100nl/50nl)
$368.72
4.20 ptbb/100
Posted byM0NIKER at 12:01 PM 0 comments
btimm challenge update 1
24 February 2008
Quick update for all of those in btimm's challenge:
21 Feb - 23 Feb:
2951 hands (100nl/50nl)
$424.18
7.14 ptbb/100
Hope everyone else is running at 7 ptbb/100... gl at the tables.
Posted byM0NIKER at 1:49 AM 1 comments
weekly update #6
20 February 2008
11 Feb - 17 Feb:
269 hands (50nl)
$156.64
58.23 ptbb/100
2,352 hands (100nl)
$143.19
3.04 ptbb/100
Not too bad of a week considering I was sick early on and had to play massive amounts of hands over the weekend. I am glad I have laid out goals for myself though and I really think that this motivated me to get the hands in and not slack off. Baby steps...
The Good:
Hand 1
So lucky that I hit it big on the river, although I was pretty sure that the villain was on big overs on the turn and felt that my pair of 7's would be ahead a good portion of the time.
Hand 2
Caught a villain who at 2 of my tables tilting super hard after taking a bad beat on the other table. I don't think he overshoves this flop with AA or KK, so I think it was a pretty easy call here given the particulars of the situation.
Hand 3
Pretty standard hand here considering effective stacks were 125BB and I was quite sure a made set was getting paid off the majority of the time against this villain (looks like I was right).
Hand 4
Likely not the best call on the flop but figured a draw was a good portion of his range and would reevaluate the turn. Lucky for me it was the J and not the K. Best play is probably to fold this flop.
The Bad:
Hand 5
I really, really need to learn to respect paired boards more. Don't know what the correct line is here given the PF action, but I don't believe it to be what I took. Thoughts appreciated.
Hand 6
I can probably find a fold here, especially since villain is 14/12/2. What is he possibly flatcalling a 3bet with PF and check/raising with on this flop. I guess I'm ahead of AK or KQ, but that's about it in terms of possible chk/raise hands. Maybe I'm just over-analyzing...
Hand 7
Yeah this one was pretty much butchered. Either go with it on the turn or admit that your weak 2pr isn't good on the river and muck it. I think I'm much better off just pitching to this river bet; one day I'll learn.
The Ugly:
Hand 8
Absolutely one of the worst "bluffs" I've ever decided to run. I could make the excuse that I was on severe tilt at this point and had convinced myself that he "can't call without a monster here," but that's not an excuse at all (and certainly isn't even true). Fortunately for me, he did have a monster and pounded me into oblivion for my terrible decision-making process -- I will learn from this mistake.
Posted byM0NIKER at 11:03 AM 6 comments
m0niker group sweat review 1 - 100NL Absolute
19 February 2008
This week was my turn for the Millennium Group sweat with Brian, Ian, and John and I was playing some 100nl on Absolute Poker. Overall the session turned out alright, with a good deal of interesting spots that generated some very worthwhile discussion post-session. Unfortunately I ended up down a little over a buyin for the session and was forced to play a pretty TAG game based on the tables I was sitting at (not so pleased with this... I'll certainly be making sure I table select better or possibly play at PokerStars for my next sweat). It was really great to have everyone watching and discussing the situations during the session, and really think that I'm learning a ton by having these guys around to bounce ideas off of -- most +EV play of the year was joining this group. Anyway, here are a few hands that I found interesting and worth discussion. I also had 3 key hands played against the same villain that I'll post up in a separate topic that I'd like commentary on as well (separating them due to their villain-specific play). Without further adieu...
Hand 1:
Absolute Poker, $0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem, 6 players
UTG: $79.30
UTG+1: $198.50
Hero: $141.15
BTN: $112.50
SB: $104.30
BB: $40.00
Pre-flop: ($1.5, 6 players) Hero is CO
2 folds, Hero raises to $4, BTN calls $4, 2 folds
Felt like this was a pretty standard open raise here given the game's flow. Villain is quite the aggressive player with stats of 25/21/2.9 over a decently large sample. He also has a ridiculously high cold call stat and pretty much plays any 2 cards on the button.
Flop: 
($9.5, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $8, Hero raises to $26, BTN calls $18
Given the villain's extremely aggressive nature I elected to check/raise this flop, as I figure him to be betting out literally any 2 cards when checked to here. I'm not really playing my hand as TPTK here so much as I am putting him on a hand that can't continue. A call behind is not what I'm looking for here as it's quite easy for me to pitch to a 4bet shove... reassessing on the turn.
Turn: 
($61.5, 2 players)
Hero bets $32, BTN raises to $82, Hero folds
Obviously I didn't do a good job or reassessing on the turn, as a bet/fold is (after further review) the absolute worst thing I can do in this spot. As Ian pointed out in the post-session review, I took the standard line for a check/raised pot (which is to fire the turn) but failed to fully assess how the turn card affects the villain's range. Villain could certainly see my check/raise on the flop as being 2overs + flush draw and elect to call with 77 or 44 on this flop. If this is the case, he is almost certainly pushing this turn card. Villain could also be on some sort of combo draw, such as As3s or As4s, which would also certainly push this turn. Regardless, I'm being offered 3.5 to 1 and need to call this shove.
I'm also quite interested in seeing what others would narrow this villain's range to, because even with a range of {22-TT, 57s,79s, AsXs, and a few random other spade hands} I'm getting 45% equity, which would indicate getting it all in on this turn regardless of the action. Thoughts?
Final Pot: $125.50
BTN wins $172 ( won +$60 )
Hero lost -$62.00
Hand 2:
Absolute Poker, $0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem, 6 players
UTG: $45.35
UTG+1: $214.75
CO: $66.85
Hero: $94.80
SB: $24.85
BB: $160.05
Pre-flop: ($1.5, 6 players) Hero is BTN
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $2, CO calls $2, Hero raises to $10, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $8, CO calls $8
Pretty standard isolation from the button with KK here. UTG+1 is an unknown villain and CO is playing 31/0/0.6 over several hundred hands.
Flop: 
($31.5, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, CO checks, Hero checks
Quite the awful flop for me and I elect to check here in a multiway pot fearing a chk/raise (specifically from the CO who has only ~$60 behind). I would fire a flop bet here almost 100% of the time if this hand was heads up, but given the stacks and multiway nature, I'm not wanting to fall too in love with my KK here.
Turn: 
($31.5, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, CO checks, Hero checks
Lots of debate here as to whether or not I should have fired this turn after being checked to for a second time. I really don't mind the check here, but John voiced his opinion that he would make a 1/2pot bet here in order to prevent a river bluff. I really don't think that I'm in agreement with his logic here, since you would only be getting called by a better hand if you bet this here. If you want to gain $15-20 of value from weaker hands, I think a check here with the intent of calling a mid-sized river bet is a better approach. Since we checked the flop I don't really feel like I can rep an big ace and move anyone off of AJ or AT, so I think playing for a cheap showdown here is best.
River: 
($31.5, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, CO bets $25, Hero folds, UTG+1 folds
The villain in the CO wakes up with a very strong river bet and I think the T hits too much of his range (AT, JK, TT) to be calling this bet, especially with UTG+1 as the original raiser still left to act. Had the bet been $10-18, I may have called... I'm not 100% sure. The villain actually told the chat that he caught the straight on the river when asked, but I don't put too much weight into that.
Final Pot: $31.50
CO wins $54.45 ( won +$19.45 )
Hero lost -$10.00
UTG+1 lost -$10.00
Hand 3:
Absolute Poker, $0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem, 6 players
UTG: $221.35
UTG+1: $76.70
CO: $199.50
BTN: $87.80
SB: $126.61
Hero: $99.75
Pre-flop: ($1.5, 6 players) Hero is BB
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $1, CO calls $1, BTN raises to $2, 1 fold, Hero raises to $10, UTG+1 folds, CO folds, BTN calls $8
Another standard 3bet preflop with KK against a 41/8/1.9 villain.
Flop: 
($22.5, 2 players)
Hero bets $12, BTN raises to $24, Hero goes all-in $89.75, BTN goes all-in $53.8
My decision to size this bet smaller than usual was made with the intention of looking weak and getting a smaller pocket pair to raise me up. I incorrectly discounted the number of hands he is calling my 3bet with that include a Q (he was a 41 vpip after all); however, I do think he makes the same move with 99+ as well as the hands that include a Q and am getting 45% equity in that scenario. Is this still as terrible a shove as it looked at the time? I tend to think so.
Turn: ($202.05, 2 players)
River: 
($202.05, 2 players)
Final Pot: $178.10
BTN shows:
Hero shows:
BTN wins $174.6 ( won +$86.8 )
Hero wins $11.95 ( lost -$99.8 )
Hand 4:
Absolute Poker, $0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem, 6 players
UTG: $191.15
UTG+1: $201.00
CO: $93.00
BTN: $90.25
Hero: $102.50
BB: $80.80
Pre-flop: ($1.5, 6 players) Hero is SB
UTG calls $1, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.5, BB checks
Decided to just complete with ATo here from the SB. UTG is a semi-regular player with stats of 29/10/1.1 and is pretty aggressive on most flops when checked to.
Flop: 
($3, 3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $2, Hero calls $2, BB folds
At this point I have no reason to believe that the villain has a better hand than me. I've seen him raise AK and AQ preflop from UTG before, so that's likely out of his range and he could easily have a weak Ax or Kx-suited. I could chk/raise here, but don't really think I can rep anything strong given the fact that I only completed from SB.
Turn: 
($7, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $6, Hero calls $6
Villain fires again on the turn, which is pretty standard for him even with weaker hands, but he is extremely passive on the river and I still think that I am ahead of his range a majority of the time. I am almost never making this call here except vs. this particular villain, but it's still probably not profitable here regardless.
River: ($19, 2 players)
Hero bets $11, UTG calls $11
River is gin for me and due to the passive nature of my opponent I decide to lead out and get some value with an $11 bet. I believe Ian was leaning towards a value-shove on this river, but given stack sizes I don't think I'm getting a call from a weak Ax, 2pr, or a set. I'm wondering if this is a situation where I should fire something over pot like $24 and hope the villain overshove-bluffs. I guess the question I have is: "what's the best way to get the rest of his stack given the fact that there's an obvious 1-card straight on the board?" (for the record, my read was completely wrong on this villain as he held AJs and had me dominated until the river)
Final Pot: $41
Hero shows:
UTG shows: 
Hero wins $38.45 ( won +$18.45 )
UTG lost -$20.00
Posted byM0NIKER at 11:37 AM 3 comments
this week in review
12 February 2008
04 Feb - 10 Feb:
13 hands (50nl)
$43.00
661.54 bb/100 -- sustainable???
2,467 hands (100nl)
-$305.44
-12.38 bb/100
Overall a pretty awful week in terms of net won/loss, however I'm not too worried about the bottom line results. I think that there were a ton of sticky situations that I got myself into, and the deck just wasn't hitting me very hard at all. I had to fold a lot of big pair type hands on scary boards, made some bad plays, etc. but in the long run I think it served as a pretty good learning experience for me. I'll post a few hands that I had some second thoughts about at the bottom of this post, but most of the big ones for the week have already been displayed in previous posts. As evidenced by the breakdown of hands played, I also decided to step up to 100nl as my main game for now. My bankroll is sitting just over $3100 and I'm confident enough in my 50nl game as a rebuilding tool to say that I'll be at 100nl from now on barring any downswing that drops me below $2600. Good luck to me in my second shot at 100nl.
Something that I had set as a goal for this month was to participate in at least one sweat session per week... managed 2 this week (one where I railed malfaire at 200nl and one where malfaire and btimm watched me tank at 100nl). Also joined up with btimm (Brian), appleseed (John), and ladymuck (Ian) to create a poker review group which I think will be greatly beneficial to us all. Hopefully we follow in the steps of UF2B and end up hitting the midstakes tables in the next few months. First group sweat session was last night, with btimm playing some 50nl. Overall a good session with some tough spots and a massive cooler (that was played well IMO) which ended up preventing a +1.5BI run. I guess I'm up for the group sweat next week, so stay tuned.
Problem Hands:
Hand 1
Can I really get away from this hand? The flop looked pretty innocuous to me, with the only real threat being a hand like 9T or 67. While the villain is 40/10/1.9, and these hands are definitely part of his range, I'm not necessarily thinking that I need to raise up this hand on the flop. When the villain leads the turn as well, I'm starting to think that he has a pretty strong hand, maybe some crazy 2 pair, a lower set, or even AJ or KJ. I'm ahead of all of these hands (and he almost never has QQ here), but am completely dominated by 9T. However, I don't think I can narrow his range down to the made straight, so I think I have to call his push as played. What do you think?
Hand 2
Hands like this really confuse me and I have no idea what to do on a flop like this. I really think that I need to pop up this weak isolation by the CO (42/7/1.2), but his range is extremely narrow here and I am utterly baffled when he flats my 4.5x 4bet OOP. Should I be c-betting when he checks this A flop to me? What about the turn? I really don't like my line at all, but feel as though I need to be calling his ridiculously weak river bet since he's showing up with TT-QQ at least 15% of the time here (sidenote: calling a 4.5x 4bet OOP preflop with AQo is really, really bad... -endrant-). Thoughts?
Posted byM0NIKER at 10:44 AM 5 comments
teh sickness
11 February 2008
Immune system decided to fail me this weekend and I came down with the flu. Therefore, no poker activities took place as I constantly shifted from shivering under the blankets to sweating my ass off. Gallons of gatorade, boxes of theraflu, and countless attempts to keep saltine crackers down later and I think I'm finally coherent enough to resume poker-related activities. Group session 1 is tonight with Brian playing some 50nl I believe, so if I'm not otherwise preoccupied with my projectile vomit I plan on soaking up some knowledge. Here's to a better week... or at least one that involves less cold sweats and more of the poker variety.
Posted byM0NIKER at 10:46 AM 1 comments
that stings
07 February 2008
Last night pretty much sucked... hard. Mark (malfaire) and Brian (btimm) were gracious enough to sweat me some at 100nl and apparently the folks at Absolute Poker didn't like that very much. I proceeded to drop 3.5BI in just under 500 hands and get into a ton of sticky situations. While I really think that the session proved very beneficial in terms of learning experience, it didn't really do too well for the old ego. Oh well, good thing I'm properly rolled and I can shrug off a loss like this. Can't really expect to win too much when you have to fold AA, QQ, JJ, etc. to flop re-raises in 3bet pots. Good game, me. Today is a new day.
Top 3 Losers: (analysis later when I have more time)
I really need to cut this out of my game
Value shove gone wrong
Dealer loves me
Top 2 Winners: (ditto)
Definitely missed some value here
This is my 2nd biggest winner??? Sad...
Posted byM0NIKER at 4:43 PM 1 comments
less than stellar
05 February 2008
Decided to fire up some 100nl at Absolute Poker last night and see how I managed playing 3-4 tables (my total bankroll was back up over $3300 so I figured it's time to start getting serious about the move). All I've got to say is that the fact that AP lets you buy in for 200BB is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it allows you to profit insanely off of fishies. On the other, if you mess up a big hand, you can mess it up hard. I'll point out instances of both at the bottom of this post, but for now I think I'm going to limit myself to 2 tables of 100nl when playing on AP. I think the games play so much different than what I was used to at PokerStars that I'm falling into some bad habits that need to be ironed out. I came across a post in the forums on PokerTrikz and feel like it has some great advice that I need to put into action at the tables (even though he is speaking of play at Cake / Red Star, I think it still applies to AP as well):
"You should just play your standard aggressive game [regardless of the site]. People will let you value bet them so hard and you should still be 2 barreling the standard stuff." -- TrikkurThe Good:
Villain is 60/30/1.8 with just over 100 hands played, so I am set mining all day with the stacks as deep as they are. On the flop I decided to flat call behind, but popping him up here would have been perfectly legit seeing as though the board is ridiculously draw-heavy. If the turn comes any K, 8, or diamond I am slowing down, but for now I'm content with playing a smallish pot. With his 1/2 pot bet on the blank turn I feel like his range is more along the line of a made hand that he is insecure about (such as KJ-KA, JJ, or QQ) than a draw. I wanted to size my raise here to an amount that left his remaining stack large enough to bluff-shove profitably (in his eyes) -- however, I don't think our remaining stacks were conducive to this, so I did the best I could. It worked, so I guess it's the correct play, right? (No seriously, what line would you all take?)
The Bad:
Villain is 35/15/1.7 regular whose attention to steal over 3k+ hands is 35%. Against a player like this I think the 3bet preflop is pretty standard since his opening range against one limper is extremely wide. The flop is great for me, but going for the c/raise is wrong on so many levels. First, all it does is telegraph to my opponent that I have AQ, KQ, or QQ+. This would cause him to fold out holdings such as AK, JJ, 88-TT, which is really what we're looking for value from. Second, it puts entirely too much money into the pot without me having a clear idea of what the villain is holding. By this point I have half of my stack invested with TPTK and can I really fold this to a guy with such a wide PFR range? The answer is yes... run away, run far far away, as the flop bet/3bet line for 200BB is bad news bears for me. Unfortunately, I am not yet adept at conceding my hands and hung my head as I shipped my stack across the virtual table. One day I will learn.
On a side note, as soon as I brought my session to a respectable -1/2 buyin (bleh) over 550 hands I sat down and railed malfaire for a good hour or so at 200nl. He was 6-tabling and running like the Sun. Seriously, the kid was getting pocket pairs and AJs+ all over the place. Unfortunately, he was put into a ton of tough situations postflop, but I think we played a lot of the hands profitably. There wasn't enough time to do a proper review at the end of the session as it was pretty late, so I'm looking forward to a post from him with a bunch of the hands... great stuff in there.
Posted byM0NIKER at 10:59 AM 4 comments
January Results
04 February 2008
January ended up being a super month for me, and not just because it was in the green for the first time in a while. I actually made a lot of progress in terms of figuring out what I want from poker and laying out a plan of action to get myself there. Baby steps, son... baby steps. I'll start the pot out with some graphs (everyone likes pretty pictures), then the numbers, then the analysis of goals and areas of improvement. Key thing to note is that most of these stats are from Absolute Poker, and I'm still adjusting my play to that particular site (I wouldn't necessarily say that 20/14/2.4 is my normal game). And without further adieu:
January Results:
Table Profit: $723.57
ABS Bonus: $120.00
ABS Rakeback: $110.39
PokerStars Reward: Nintendo Wii
January Goals Review:
- 2,500 total hands / wk -- COMPLETE (barely made this... 2 tabling 100nl hurt the overall hands though)
- 100nl shots at least 1x / wk -- COMPLETE (see above)
- Sustain > 6 bb/100 for the month -- COMPLETE (achieved almost 2x this goal... I runs hot)
- Stop the tilt (institute -2BI stopgap) -- COMPLETE (only occurred once, but I immediately quit so 'yay')
- Watch 2 instructional videos / wk -- COMPLETE (CRE & PokerTrikz... Leggo & Deuces Cracked next?)
- Read professional nlhe (100pg) -- COMPLETE (finished first 2 sections)
- Read the poker mindset (100pg) -- INCOMPLETE (this is important... need to make time)
- Start blogging again -- COMPLETE (isn't this evidence?)
Posted byM0NIKER at 1:35 PM 1 comments
2 point 4 percent?
28 Jan - 03 Feb:
1,591 hands (50nl)
$296.61
37.29 bb/100
534 hands (100nl)
$34.47
6.46 bb/100
Overall I was pretty happy with this past week's results. I didn't get to play as much as I would have liked, but was busy with happy hours, dinner dates, Super Bowl parties and the like, so I'll take the moderately light week on that tables in exchange for satisfying social interaction. I hear it's pretty +ev. Anyway, I won't get into too much detail as to what aspects of the game I feel I need to work on in this post as I will be posting up a January monthly recap later today, but I will highlight some of my big winners and losers for the week. (Oh, and even though it doesn't show up as a big net hand for me, I did manage to get 1-outtered in a multiway 300BB pot... and yes folks, that's a 2.4% suckout against your's truly.)
Top 3 Losers:
Free money for Villain
Don't know what on earth I was doing here. Villain is playing 42/5/0.8, so when he bets out on not only the flop, but the turn as well, I have to know I'm beat. Oh well, we make mistakes so we can learn from them.
Learn when to 3bet
Probably shouldn't be 3betting here with KJcc, but villain is a habitual big loser at the 100nl game on ABS (-$1.4k over 7000 hands) and plays 45/18/1.3, so I figured I'd be ahead of his range a majority of the time and could take his whole stack if I flopped well. Don't really mind the flop c-bet to see where I'm at, but I don't think I should be calling the minraise if I'm just planning on check/folding the turn. After looking back at the hand, I don't know what card could have come on the turn that would have made me want to continue other than the Tc, and even that is sketchy at best. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be 3betting OOP with such suspect hands that leave me questioning where I stand when I flop top pair. Bad m0niker.
No free cards
Villain was playing 44/6/0.8 and had been calling my PFR out of position and check/folding the flop a few times now. I put him squarely on a weak ace on the flop and figured I'd get it all in on the turn provided no heart hit. I was fairly comfortable doing this since I was holding the Qh in my hand, but in hindsight maybe I should have just raised him up here. Either way, 3-outters are fun.
Top 3 Winners:
Free money for Hero
Chat history on this table looked like such immediately prior to and after this hand:
Villain wins ($101.20) with (One pair, sixes) -- BS hand where 63cc beat 58ss that somehow got all in
Villain: wow this is easy
Villain: lol... moron
Hero wins ($200.40) with (Three of a kind, threes)
Hero: no sir, that was easy
Villain: not at all, let's play heads up -- sucks HU isn't a solid part of my game yet, and I had to decline (frown face)
Suckouts work too
Don't really know why villain was flat-calling a PFR OOP with AK, or why he was checking on a K high flop, but either way he had me throughly confused as to what he held. I figured I could fire a 2nd barrel on the Q turn, but that obviously backfired. I tried to do the math quick in my head and thought I was getting decent enough implied odds to hit my 2pr or set, but upon further review I certainly need to brush up on my impromptu odds calculations. Should not have called that turn raise, but I'll take the $$$.
More free money
Pretty standard... get dealt overpair vs. 40BB stack, proceed to bet/raise/get it all in against said shorty, pray he didn't play something awful and suck out on you.
Posted byM0NIKER at 11:08 AM 0 comments
malfaire says what?
01 February 2008
Last night I had the pleasure of being railed by malfaire (damn right it's a pleasure, he makes you feel so good). Overall, the session turned out well -- couldn't catch hands or hit flops for my life, but ended up +2BI. Over 400 hands I showed up with AA, QQ, and JJ a grand total of 0 times, KK 1 time, and any incarnation of AK (suited or offsuit) 1 time. Fun for me! However, since everyone at Absolute Poker is ridiculously terrible, I didn't need good hands to get paid off. (Side note: If you do not play on AP, please stop reading and go sign up there now. In my month of playing there I have never sat with at a table with a combined table VPIP less than 30 or at a table with a combined table PFR over 10. It's like Party Poker reincarnate, at least at 50nl and 100nl.) Anyway, the tables I was sitting at this session led to me playing tons of hands in position for cheap in multiway pots. Alas, I just couldn't seem to hit a goddamn thing. I also tried to take some creative lines against these ridiculous donks in order to force them into making large mistakes... so creative (or dumb) in fact that on several occasions malfaire was reduced to "what the hell are you doing? e'splain yourself!"
40BB Losers:
Isolation Gone Wrong
Simple hand of me trying to isolate the initial bettor for his 25BB with a mid pocket pair. Put him on small PP or 2 overs, so I liked my chances. Unfortunately, I don't know how to read stack sizes correctly and my bet size got all messed up. I'm still fine getting it all in here with the stack sizes as they were. I think weaktight is messing up the hand results, but original bettor had 44 and the other guy AA(h). I like drawing to 1 out... it's +ev.
Just Believe...
Villain here was playing 29/9/1.5 and I was going for some thin value on the river. I actually think I approached the river absolutely the wrong way given the range I had the villain on. I would prefer a check call here, since I don't think I'm getting called by anything that I'm beating and the only way to get a random J, K, or busted Q straight draw to give me chips is to let them bluff the river. A flush is obviously raising me here, and a straight is at least calling. Bad decision to bet the river + terrible call of his minraise = -32BB for me. (Note to self... don't play large pots in unraised hands without the nuts when every possible draw hits!)
40BB Winners:
Malfaire says what?
Villain is playing 42/12/1.1 (however, his turn/river AF are ridiculously high compared to overall AF). I went for a completely non-standard line here on the turn strictly to vary my play. Admittedly, I had no idea if this would work, but I remember both reading about similar play and observing an example or two in a recent videos and decided to take a shot with it. Given villain's stats here, his range is ridiculously wide... he could have any pair on the flop, random 2pr, straight draw, overs. His check/call doesn't really give us any information due to the nature his passive play, so on to the turn. The K hits and he checks again. Now we certainly aren't going to check this behind because straight draws can still catch up with a free card, so it's either make a standard second barrel or do something unexpected. I think if we fire out a standard 2/3 pot bet here of $10.5 we're likely to fold out all air a small pieces of the flop because it shows that we aren't afraid of that K hitting. By overbetting this turn I'm polarizing my range, telling my opponent that I either have a monster or I'm really afraid of that board and want him to fold out right now. At this limit I think that the players just simply don't want to ever give you credit and are more willing to make a terrible mistake in bluffing big. Villain obviously obliges and makes an absolutely horrendous c/raise bluff with a gutshot. I certainly don't think I get him all in if I make a standard c-bet here, but what does everyone else think?
Malfaire also brought up a good point during the session review as well: "Do you make the same play if the turn bricks?" I think the answer is no, since I'm no longer ahead of random 2pair/set that will surely be check/raising me. A c-bet of $10.5 here would still allow me to fold to a CRAI, but at $16 I think I'd be dangerously close to commitment with only an overpair.
Combo Draws are Fun
As mentioned previously I was trying to see as many multiway flops as possible from late position, which is why I think I'm okay limp/calling a hand like A7hh from the button in these games. Board obviously comes extremely nice for me and I'm getting it in here on the flop if need be. My reraise size is a little small here, since I want to commit myself to a turn bet by Villain, but I was timing down and just threw something out there to beat the clock (AP time runs down quick IMO). Malfaire and I went back and forth on the turn as to whether or not I should take a free card, but in the end I think we made the right decision. Good river, and went for some value... shame he didn't call. Oh wells.
Valuetown
Pretty standard play. If Villain has AQ or Q9, more power to him. If not, I'll take your money in small chunks... kthxbye.
Overall Session Stats:
Posted byM0NIKER at 11:38 AM 4 comments