So I finally took the plunge and purchased Pokertracker 3. The program is pretty sick, offers a lot of good data analysis and the HUD overlay is much better than PT2 + PAHUD. I'm hoping it will help me improve my cash game. Over the last couple months I've been break even or less at various cash games. I'm beginning to think that my late 2007 success at 9 way 1/2nl was a product of the stats I was recieving from pokertracker. I'm going to commit a lot of time to reviewing my hands more dilligently and trying to find leaks, so hopefully we turn the cash problems around.
On a high note, I've been doing pretty well at SNG's since I committed myself to playing them more regularly. On Stars, I've been playing the PCA steps. I've invested $100 at step 1, and though I've technically got nothing to show for it yet, I've played 5 step 4s and 2 Step 5s so far. Its only a matter of time before I break through one of my step 5s and get to the big step 6 sng.
I've also been playing a lot of SNG's on Full Tilt. I'm really digging the 24+2 DS KO Turbo 90 man sng's (that's a mouthful). I played 4 of them yesterday, and won two. In my first of the day, I finished 12th after Flopping a boat on a K5k board with 55, and getting it in vs 99. He found one of his 4 outs on the turn and the 9 sent me to the rail. Not sure on my knockout stats in this one, I think it was 3 or 4 KO's. In the second of these tourneys, I had 8 KO's in addition to the $576 for first, for a grand total of $608. Not bad. After this I fired up the next two that filled. In the third one, I had 4 KO's but finished in the mid 30's. The nice thing about KO's is it offsets the cost of these tourneys. In the 4th one of these of the night, I shortstacked most of the way until Full Tilt flipped the God switch for me. After winning a shove with k4 v a9, I successfully stole some blinds then won a flip with AQ v 33, then found KK on the big blind and had a 10k stack open shove. Now chiplead with 4ok, I never relented. I opened every pot to 5k on the bubble, with blinds at 1k 2k. All good, entered final table with 50k. There I dominated the fishies who are obviously sng players not mtt players. 4 way I had 180k or the 270k in play. I steamrolled to HU, where I briefly lost the CL after making a marginal reshove with Q6ss and getting caught by A8o. I fought back to even, then found AA at 2.5k/5k. Awful opponent limps, I make it 16500, he calls. Flop is J82, I lead 16.5k, villain waits and ships it in. Snap call, K2o is no good. GG second win of the day. I had 11 ko's in this tourney, $620 total for first. One problem with PT3 and these sng's is that PT3 doesn't record ko's. This is kind of annoying, because the summary.txt file for each ko tournament says how many ko's you had at the top. It doesn't seem like a huge script change would be needed to include this in PT3. Maybe it will be a later update though, we'll see.
Conceptually I think that these 24+2 90's are extremely +EV for me. They play similar to a mtt to start, where you're deep and people call raises very light. The turbo structure causes people to have very low m's as we get to 45-50 ppl left. I'll see spots where there is 800 in the pot at 200/400, most of the table has 4-8k, and this is when ppl start tightening up. WTF? This is when I'm getting aggressive and chipping up. Also, I'm amazed at the amount of ppl who flat call off all their cips. If someone shoves from middle position and I'm the button with KQ, A10, 44 and an average stack, I'm looking for a better spot. Not these idiots. So many all ins are called and we see races of A8ss vs KJ vs 66. Such a joke! I think that because of the ko value, people are more apt to call all ins. I understand the value of the ko, but it only marginally makes me more likely to call an all in. I'm playing to win the tournament, not pick up an additional 4 bucks.
When I get home tonight I will post my pt3 tournament graph from oct1 to today. I'll post a new graph every monday, as a way to keep me on my game and track my progress.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Weekend Wrapup
Finished this weekend up a couple buy ins, mostly playing PLO. I also found a new fun game, the super turbo 9 way SNG's. These things appear pretty soft, and probably are because every one I've played so far has had 3 people who have no idea what they are doing. Donks shipping it in first orbit with A rag or suited connectors, to steal 45 chips, only to be looked up by a similar hand. I have no problem with trying to steal the blinds, but early position it makes no sense with those hands.. I also hate the call behind, but knowing people do it should affect your play. Oh well the point is I think this is another niche where I can make some good money. PLO has been going well and the rakeback is sick, but I can see the volatility every session I play - I would have been up huge this weekend if not for a hand I played Sunday morning. I was at a deep table sitting on $850 and got it in on a 7910 rainbow flop with 6789 (2nd straight + bottom 2) vs an opponent who 3 bet preflop (smells like AA).. he shows JJKK and turns a Q for $1700 :( I'd post the hand here so we can look at the exact equity, but I insta slammed the laptop shut and dont want to dig through my hand history folder to find it.
I will post my sharkscope after a couple days of these Super Turbos to see how I'm doing.. I'm going to try to consciously split my time between 6 max 1/2 PLO and 48+2 super turbos to see how the ROI is on each.
I will post my sharkscope after a couple days of these Super Turbos to see how I'm doing.. I'm going to try to consciously split my time between 6 max 1/2 PLO and 48+2 super turbos to see how the ROI is on each.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Just finished a sick session
So I wasn't planning on a post tonight, but I just had a stackathon vs this guy at a deep 1/2 plo table and need to share these hands. Literally made $1200, mostly off him, in 1 hour at this table.. lol. Here are the big pots we played- I'll put the equity for each of us below to give you an idea of how spewy he was.
Hand 1
61/39 in my favor when we get it in on the flop. My 4 bet shove range here is 44, 64, AKQ6?? Just getting to know him, but the hand right after this he stacks off the remainder and reloads.. a hint of what is to come ?
Hand 2
93/7 in my favor on the flop.. he improves to 82/17 on the turn when he reships on my with no FE :)
Hand 3
89/11 in my favor on the flop.. he was a bit short here so its not as bad as hand 2, and I'm sure he was tilting- still awful play though..
Hand 4
75/25 me on the flop.. 85/15 me on the turn. GG Fish, this was his last buyin.
All told, he gives me $1030 in 34 minutes. Well done.
Hand 1
61/39 in my favor when we get it in on the flop. My 4 bet shove range here is 44, 64, AKQ6?? Just getting to know him, but the hand right after this he stacks off the remainder and reloads.. a hint of what is to come ?
Hand 2
93/7 in my favor on the flop.. he improves to 82/17 on the turn when he reships on my with no FE :)
Hand 3
89/11 in my favor on the flop.. he was a bit short here so its not as bad as hand 2, and I'm sure he was tilting- still awful play though..
Hand 4
75/25 me on the flop.. 85/15 me on the turn. GG Fish, this was his last buyin.
All told, he gives me $1030 in 34 minutes. Well done.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Another night of PLO
Last night I 5-tabled 1/2 PLO for 2 hours. I buy into these games at $160, and I finished the night up just over 2 buy ins. Overall it was a good session, but I was up 6 buyins at one point, so I gave a bit more back then I would have liked. I was at one table that was really juicy. A fish at the table had ~$600 in front of him after putting a good cooler on an opponent on a 2 spade board when they got it in and his low flush draw ran down to pair to beat the other guys nut flush draw+AA. ooops. This fish was raising ridiculously, and calling every 3 bet pre, so I was really happy to get in pots with him. Here is a hand I played with said fish where I got fairly lucky when we both had AA. This is such a good spot for me because he jams the shit out of a marginal AA holding while my AA is stacked. AA is such a tough hand to play in PLO, and this is a great example. Do you really want to lose 4 buy ins with AA pre all in? You're only a 60 40 vs 6789 2x suited hands, and you are in pretty bad shape if you're up against another pair of AA. In this hand I think my hand was pretty transparent but it didn't matter.
Hand 1
This next hand is good too. I find the nuts on the turn, and the villain decides that the turn is the best time for him to make his big raise, now that the straight has hit. Sometimes I just don't get peoples' play in PLO... I guess I tricked him by smoothing first position's bet here. Maybe it was just well played.. anyway check it out
Hand 2
This last hand came at the end of the session and really hurt. After I call the first raise and two people call the 3 bet, I'm obviously coming along to try to stack the AA guy. Well I hit my nice flop, but once I got it in vs two guys I know I'm not in great shape as I'm racing a flush draw and a wrap draw. Pair the board one time!
Hand 3
That's going to do it for today. As you can see, in PLO one or two big pots really swings a session- I started out on fire when my AA busted the other AA and then when the guy had a set vs my straight.. then later in the session I was on the other side of an AA vs AA and I lost the huge top set pot for a million bucks. Such is poker though, esp PLO.
Have a good July 4th, I probably won't post again until Sunday.
Hand 1
This next hand is good too. I find the nuts on the turn, and the villain decides that the turn is the best time for him to make his big raise, now that the straight has hit. Sometimes I just don't get peoples' play in PLO... I guess I tricked him by smoothing first position's bet here. Maybe it was just well played.. anyway check it out
Hand 2
This last hand came at the end of the session and really hurt. After I call the first raise and two people call the 3 bet, I'm obviously coming along to try to stack the AA guy. Well I hit my nice flop, but once I got it in vs two guys I know I'm not in great shape as I'm racing a flush draw and a wrap draw. Pair the board one time!
Hand 3
That's going to do it for today. As you can see, in PLO one or two big pots really swings a session- I started out on fire when my AA busted the other AA and then when the guy had a set vs my straight.. then later in the session I was on the other side of an AA vs AA and I lost the huge top set pot for a million bucks. Such is poker though, esp PLO.
Have a good July 4th, I probably won't post again until Sunday.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Back from the Dead!!
Hey Folks,
I'm starting the blog back up again. I stopped posting for a while, and didn't want to throw random posts in until I was committed to updating it every few days and making it a worthwhile read again. The flavor of the blog is sure to change a bit, because I've changed my focus. When the blog first started, I was hammering out multitable tournaments and printing money, and it was sweet. Then the variance bug bit me and I switched to 9 way 1/2 NL, yawn most boring game eva.. So the boredom drove me to the occasional mtt, and I basically played break even poker for 6 months. I took some time off to get things settled in my new house (read: disaster), and started back up a couple weeks ago. My buddy Tim turned me on to 6 max Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), so that’s what I'm rolling with now. There were a couple reasons I decided to make the switch:
1. PLO is a harder game, therefor you can develop a bigger edge over weak players.
2. Eurodonks play tons of PLO, and everyone knows they donate with their aggrotard styles.
3. Because Eurodonks play, the games are going pretty strong from 7pm-midnight here on the East Coast, which is my preffered time to play. Theres nothing like finding some Russian rolling in from a 6 hour booz and coke bender sitting down to play some PLO Deep at 4am his time :)
The only drawbacks I see to playing PLO is that the variance can kick you much harder, because compared to NLH you are getting it in sooooo often. When a hand gets 3 bet preflop, 33% of the time there is going to be an all in on the flop. Just the way the game plays out- so many times you will see a 60/40 come down when dry top set shows down vs Wrap straight draw, or open ended straight flush draw, etc etc. You definetly need a strong stomach for PLO.
Right now I'm only 4 tabling, because I'm still developing my game, and it deffinetly takes more concentration and focus than NLH. Also, my desktop is busto due to a flood in my house, so I'm working off the laptop where any more than 4 screens is microscopic.
So with that in mind, my journey into PLO has begun. Last night I had a particularly good session, winning 10 buy ins at one of the tables I was sitting at. Here are two hands below from my session last night.
Hand 1
This hand was a huge pot, the one that really got my night going. With all the action in front of me, I felt like AA wasn't out there, so my KK was good if I was going to play it headsup. With the A and the J there as well, I'm looking at some good broadway potential, and the nut club draw throws a little more security into the mix. Also I've noticed tons of people smooth pre with hands like 4567 and 7889. These are the hands I'm hoping to smash off here.
Hand 2
This hand was good because I'd been playing a lot of pots with this guy. I burn him on the flop here by flopping the nuts, but here was my strategy. When I check and opponent 1 bets, I'm thinking small flush or set. When the guy behind pops him, its gotta be the nut flush, and he's not folding. The reason I pot is that I know nut flush isn't folding, and if the 2nd pos guy has a set, esp top set, he might decide to roll with us knowing we're flushed, and try to pair off to scoopp the pot with a boat. He folded and told me in the chat that he folded a smaller flush, so I wasn't getting any value out of him anyway.
Alright that’s all for the first installment of Omaha blog action- check out the new link I added to Tim's blog, he is one of the King's of the Internet.
I'm starting the blog back up again. I stopped posting for a while, and didn't want to throw random posts in until I was committed to updating it every few days and making it a worthwhile read again. The flavor of the blog is sure to change a bit, because I've changed my focus. When the blog first started, I was hammering out multitable tournaments and printing money, and it was sweet. Then the variance bug bit me and I switched to 9 way 1/2 NL, yawn most boring game eva.. So the boredom drove me to the occasional mtt, and I basically played break even poker for 6 months. I took some time off to get things settled in my new house (read: disaster), and started back up a couple weeks ago. My buddy Tim turned me on to 6 max Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), so that’s what I'm rolling with now. There were a couple reasons I decided to make the switch:
1. PLO is a harder game, therefor you can develop a bigger edge over weak players.
2. Eurodonks play tons of PLO, and everyone knows they donate with their aggrotard styles.
3. Because Eurodonks play, the games are going pretty strong from 7pm-midnight here on the East Coast, which is my preffered time to play. Theres nothing like finding some Russian rolling in from a 6 hour booz and coke bender sitting down to play some PLO Deep at 4am his time :)
The only drawbacks I see to playing PLO is that the variance can kick you much harder, because compared to NLH you are getting it in sooooo often. When a hand gets 3 bet preflop, 33% of the time there is going to be an all in on the flop. Just the way the game plays out- so many times you will see a 60/40 come down when dry top set shows down vs Wrap straight draw, or open ended straight flush draw, etc etc. You definetly need a strong stomach for PLO.
Right now I'm only 4 tabling, because I'm still developing my game, and it deffinetly takes more concentration and focus than NLH. Also, my desktop is busto due to a flood in my house, so I'm working off the laptop where any more than 4 screens is microscopic.
So with that in mind, my journey into PLO has begun. Last night I had a particularly good session, winning 10 buy ins at one of the tables I was sitting at. Here are two hands below from my session last night.
Hand 1
This hand was a huge pot, the one that really got my night going. With all the action in front of me, I felt like AA wasn't out there, so my KK was good if I was going to play it headsup. With the A and the J there as well, I'm looking at some good broadway potential, and the nut club draw throws a little more security into the mix. Also I've noticed tons of people smooth pre with hands like 4567 and 7889. These are the hands I'm hoping to smash off here.
Hand 2
This hand was good because I'd been playing a lot of pots with this guy. I burn him on the flop here by flopping the nuts, but here was my strategy. When I check and opponent 1 bets, I'm thinking small flush or set. When the guy behind pops him, its gotta be the nut flush, and he's not folding. The reason I pot is that I know nut flush isn't folding, and if the 2nd pos guy has a set, esp top set, he might decide to roll with us knowing we're flushed, and try to pair off to scoopp the pot with a boat. He folded and told me in the chat that he folded a smaller flush, so I wasn't getting any value out of him anyway.
Alright that’s all for the first installment of Omaha blog action- check out the new link I added to Tim's blog, he is one of the King's of the Internet.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Weekly Update
Hi Guys and girl,
Quick update on the weekend- I ft'ed two mtts and got 7 and 8th, gg I suck. Full recap to follow, in the meantime here are some great youtube poker clips- enjoy.
Jennifer Tilly is an awesome poker player:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tN6wAHTWeEA
Quick update on the weekend- I ft'ed two mtts and got 7 and 8th, gg I suck. Full recap to follow, in the meantime here are some great youtube poker clips- enjoy.
Jennifer Tilly is an awesome poker player:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tN6wAHTWeEA
Monday, February 25, 2008
Weekend Wrapup
Hello Hello
Another weekend has come and gone. Yesterday I went over to bluechip's condo for a MTT marathon session. We started by playing the $26 KO tournament on FTP. I had a good run in the tournament, knocking out 9 people for (9x4) $36. Ship it. Oh yea I final tabled the tourney too. Made it to final table in 6/9, then ran the table over until we got 4 way. Chipped up from 260k to 650k with only one showdown, was really funny. 3 way we had a long battle, then I finally got hu as a 3 to 1 dog. I doubled through after getting pretty low when I spiked a river straight on a 2KQ 10 turn that I reshipped all in and the villain called with K4. Then I had him 3 to 1, and he played really strange. Open shoving sometimes, min raising others, really varying his raises. Deffinetly confused and got the best of me. I made a bad read 3 bet with Q10 and he shipped in with QQ, and pot committed I called. Now I am short, and I shoved next hand with K9 and his AJ held to send me to rail in 2nd place. $2400 though so not a bad pay.
I also played a bunch of big Sunday tournaments- Sunday Mill, 750k, Sunday Mulligan, 25K, 55K, 24K. Here are the summaries of these tournaments:
Sunday Million- 500 buy in. Middle of first hour, Active player raised to 350 at 50 100 in cutoff. I reraised to 750 from button with 79ss. He reraised to 1350. I feel sick and call hoping to bury him. Flop 7x9cQc. Hehe. He checks, I bet 1800, he insta ships it in. I call after a brief deliberation, and he shows Akcc. Harmless turn, club on the river GG. People love thee flush draw.
750k- 200 buy in. Played good in first hour, but had this weird hand comeup. I raise 99 to 180 at 30 60 in mp. SB and BB call. Flop 6h8h9h. SB checks, BB bets 80, I raise to 280, SB raises to 580. WTFaments? I hate it, so I call. Turn is offsuit Q… SB shoves 2500 into 1300 pot. I fold the top set. I think he had a small flush, but bluechip was leaning towards a call thinking he could have lower set or Ah and a pair. Oh well. Then I dominated this fish at my table and doubled through him twice before stacking him, and I had 7500. Cruise through hour two with this stack, and then in hour 3 I raise Ajcc in lp to 580. Button overshoves 5500. It folds to me and I decide to call, his bet just felt like a semi bluff steal. He shows 55. Flop A102 turn 3 river 4!!!!! Wtf gfky!!! I am crippled and shove and lose soon after.
Mulligan- 200 buy in. Nothin doing really, lost when I rivered a flush that filled a villain and I craised him all in. GG.
55K- Doubled up with QQ early when utg raised, I reraised, flop comes 668, utg checks, I shove 2200 into 400 pot, he calls with 1010. Did my bet look like AK!? Cruised here for a while, then lost a big pot with 99 on a 678 board vs JJ. Then on the BB I have Q8cc, utg min raised, button calls, I call. Flop two clubs with a gutshot, check, utg bets, button calls, I shove, utg folds, button calls with 1010. I miss 15 outs blah.
25K- Don't remember how I lost- doubled early though so probably donked it off.
24K- No recollection of this tournament whatsoever.
All in all a decent Sunday, building the roll slowly but surely. Hopefully I'll win the Sunday mill or something next weekend tho, would be nice.
Another weekend has come and gone. Yesterday I went over to bluechip's condo for a MTT marathon session. We started by playing the $26 KO tournament on FTP. I had a good run in the tournament, knocking out 9 people for (9x4) $36. Ship it. Oh yea I final tabled the tourney too. Made it to final table in 6/9, then ran the table over until we got 4 way. Chipped up from 260k to 650k with only one showdown, was really funny. 3 way we had a long battle, then I finally got hu as a 3 to 1 dog. I doubled through after getting pretty low when I spiked a river straight on a 2KQ 10 turn that I reshipped all in and the villain called with K4. Then I had him 3 to 1, and he played really strange. Open shoving sometimes, min raising others, really varying his raises. Deffinetly confused and got the best of me. I made a bad read 3 bet with Q10 and he shipped in with QQ, and pot committed I called. Now I am short, and I shoved next hand with K9 and his AJ held to send me to rail in 2nd place. $2400 though so not a bad pay.
I also played a bunch of big Sunday tournaments- Sunday Mill, 750k, Sunday Mulligan, 25K, 55K, 24K. Here are the summaries of these tournaments:
Sunday Million- 500 buy in. Middle of first hour, Active player raised to 350 at 50 100 in cutoff. I reraised to 750 from button with 79ss. He reraised to 1350. I feel sick and call hoping to bury him. Flop 7x9cQc. Hehe. He checks, I bet 1800, he insta ships it in. I call after a brief deliberation, and he shows Akcc. Harmless turn, club on the river GG. People love thee flush draw.
750k- 200 buy in. Played good in first hour, but had this weird hand comeup. I raise 99 to 180 at 30 60 in mp. SB and BB call. Flop 6h8h9h. SB checks, BB bets 80, I raise to 280, SB raises to 580. WTFaments? I hate it, so I call. Turn is offsuit Q… SB shoves 2500 into 1300 pot. I fold the top set. I think he had a small flush, but bluechip was leaning towards a call thinking he could have lower set or Ah and a pair. Oh well. Then I dominated this fish at my table and doubled through him twice before stacking him, and I had 7500. Cruise through hour two with this stack, and then in hour 3 I raise Ajcc in lp to 580. Button overshoves 5500. It folds to me and I decide to call, his bet just felt like a semi bluff steal. He shows 55. Flop A102 turn 3 river 4!!!!! Wtf gfky!!! I am crippled and shove and lose soon after.
Mulligan- 200 buy in. Nothin doing really, lost when I rivered a flush that filled a villain and I craised him all in. GG.
55K- Doubled up with QQ early when utg raised, I reraised, flop comes 668, utg checks, I shove 2200 into 400 pot, he calls with 1010. Did my bet look like AK!? Cruised here for a while, then lost a big pot with 99 on a 678 board vs JJ. Then on the BB I have Q8cc, utg min raised, button calls, I call. Flop two clubs with a gutshot, check, utg bets, button calls, I shove, utg folds, button calls with 1010. I miss 15 outs blah.
25K- Don't remember how I lost- doubled early though so probably donked it off.
24K- No recollection of this tournament whatsoever.
All in all a decent Sunday, building the roll slowly but surely. Hopefully I'll win the Sunday mill or something next weekend tho, would be nice.
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