| Sunday, February 1st, 2009 |
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Friday Tilt and Some PLO Stuff
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Posted 2:47 am in Categories: Poker |
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Friday night, went to play a $10 tournament at my parents' place. Horrible players, and I've finished top two every time I haven't received some horrible bad beat. That wasn't the kind of night it was. I lost about 80% of my chips when I flopped a set of 5's on a 10-5-4 board. I eventually lost the hand to 10-7 when the turn and river came a 3 and 6. Suck. Lost the rest of it with AK against the same guy when HE flopped a set of 5's and I couldn't go runner-runner on him. Oh well. Went home to play PLO in not the best frame of mind. I had some crappy situations, lost a few pots where I was a decent favorite, but I also played badly in a number of spots, especially in 3- and 4-bet pots preflop, and my lessons cost me a little over 4 buy-ins. Bleh.
Won about half of that back today, and I'd had a decent run before that, so I finish January up the glorious sum of $20! Yes!
I ran some numbers, but without a program like PokerTracker, they're just estimates (I know hours played, dollars made, etc, so I have a rough estimate of number of hands). But based on those estimates, at $25 PLO I'm running at about 7-9 PTBB/100. Not too bad. It's less impressive at $50 PLO, but I haven't played quite as much of that, and between the two games I'm averaging about 3.5 PTBB/100. Not bad, but room to improve as well. That stretch covers somewhere in the neighborhood of 48000-50000 hands, so I feel like I'm getting some reasonable experience.
So far, I have a slightly different style from a lot of people I've seen. I c-bet more, I 3-bet preflop relatively rarely (even with Aces I often prefer to flat and just play postflop), and I take stabs with mid-strength hands a lot more than many players (I will bet a lot of 2 pair hands, and non-nut straights and flushes until I meet resistance, where a lot of players at this level frequently check). So far, those strategies have served me well, but I know there are times where I play too many hands, and I should be learning to 3-bet parts of my range more effectively.
As long as I stick to Hold'em and Omaha, I should be fine, as all my losses in the last 14 months have been in the other games (I'm probably not as good at the limit games or Stud games as I initially thought). Maybe February will be the month I rebuild enough to take more shots at $50 PLO. I dropped one of my classes this semester, so hopefully I'll have a little more time, even though I'm serving as a TA for another class.
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| Friday, January 23rd, 2009 |
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Mostly a Break-Even Month
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Posted 10:24 pm in Categories: Poker |
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Last time I went to play live, I had two pretty stupendous pots when I was dealt AA twice in three hands.
Typical $1/$3 live game. Two people limp, and the guy on my right (with about $150) raises to $40! I look down at my red Aces and consider flatting, but then decide not to get fancy with these idiots and just shove my $110 stack. The guy on my left snap-shoves like he can't get his chips in fast enough. Folded around to the original raiser who reluctantly calls. At this point, I'm wondering if the guy on my right could possibly have the black Aces, because the way he was acting, I would have thought I was dead with Kings. I flip my Aces, the guy on my right flips Queens (about what I expected), and then the snap-shover shows JJ? JJ???? An innocuous board ending with an Ace on the river triples me up.
Two hands later, I raise to $18 with AA (again) after one limper. To my surprise, I get 5 callers! The flop was something benign like 9-6-2 with two spades (I have the Ace of spades). Checked to me, I bet $65, and the guy on my left (the guy who oddly shipped with Jacks) shoves for $90 total. Folded back to me (whew), and I obviously call. A third spade makes me slightly nervous, but I turned up my Aces to a series of "wow's" and he mucked on the river. All of a sudden I have like $520.
I played for about 90 minutes after that, went totally card-dead (and got a fair amount of ribbing for not playing many pots in that time), and cashed out for $480. Nice little session. Too bad I went back to the casino later and dropped $190 back at $3/$6 limit (card dead even worse). Limit is like watching paint dry now. I probably need to play higher to make it more exciting. That sounds healthy.
Online, I've been running mostly cold. In PLO, I've been taking some sick beats and running into sick coolers (second set with blockers versus top set on draw heavy boards where their range is wide open, etc). Had a nice straight flush for almost 300 BB today, and hopefully I'm back on the upswing, but we'll see what happens. I'd like time to play tournaments, but it never seems to be the right time. Besides, cash games are probably still more +EV for me, but I'm still jealous of these other THP'ers taking down big scores. When is my boat gonna come in? I want a vacation this year! 
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| Thursday, January 15th, 2009 |
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Thinking About Making a Few Changes
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Posted 10:02 pm in Categories: Poker |
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January never seems to be a good month for me in Poker. So far, I've had one abysmal live session where I lost about $240, and I'm down another $50 online from doing stupid stuff. On top of that, I'm wondering if maybe I've hit a plateau in my game and I'm at a level where maybe I was good enough to win a year ago, but that the game has intensified enough that I'm maybe only around break even now in some of the games (not live, but online).
So, I'm thinking of breaking down and doing two things I had previously said I wouldn't: join a training site, and get PokerTracker. Now, overall, I think the Poker world would be better for intelligent people if there were no training sites and no PokerTracker, but the fact is that all the really good players are using these tools, and many of the games are such now that I am at a disadvantage by abstaining from these things. Something to think about anyway.
I have a new computer now, and I'm happy to say it works well, and I preserved all the important things from my old machine. But now I have hardware that works a lot faster, and will hopefully help out a lot. Maybe it will even improve my Poker results.
So, the secret now is to balance my play. Online, I'm going to try and stick to $0.10/$0.25 PLO and cheap ($3 and $5 rebuys) NL tournies and satellites to hopefully run up a little money online. Live, I'm going to probably play more limit than I have previously, just to reduce variance. Last August, I was thinking of going for Supernova in 2009, but I don't think that volume is feasible given my school schedule for this year. But I'm hoping to find a little time to play this year, and who knows, maybe I'll finally win a donkament. I mean, if Ciso and ScanX can do it, how hard can it be? 
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| Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 |
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2008 in Review, Looking Ahead to 2009
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Posted 12:02 am in Categories: Poker |
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Every year I usually do this, and make some ridiculous goals for the next year that I never accomplish. So this year I'll keep it simple: my goal is to play winning Poker, and only play when it is enjoyable. There, simple enough, and I might even accomplish it. 
2008 was a busy year, so I'll take it month by month.
Jan/Feb: these months run together, because until Feb. 15, I was still in the hell that was my job. I played a little bit on the weekends here and there, and tilted off like $1400 online and live. Once I was finished with work, I took the rest of the month off to rebuild the pieces of my life.
March: this was my single biggest winning month of the year. I won a nice heap playing $1/$3 NL and $4/$8 limit in the live games. I made up the deficit from the first two months and got back on track. Finished the month up $1500.
April: here, my live results started to taper off, variance kicked in, and I lost a small amount. I think at this point I started playing online again, and it didn't go as well as before. Down $82.
May: Play here was almost entirely online, and I just couldn't get anything going. The HORSE games got tougher, and I never made any tournament scores, not that I played that many. Down $123.
June: I had a really bad run at the beginning of the month and a few terrible live sessions. About midway through the month, I took up PLO and began studying the game much more deeply. I beat the $25 PLO games for about 20 buy-ins, recuperating some of my losses. Still down about $400 for the month, but it could have been worse.
July: this was a decent month, as I moved from the $25 PLO games to the $50 PLO games, got some decent FPP's, and improved my overall game. However, I also took a trip to Vegas that was less than successful. However, it was the first winning month that I had since March. Up about $500.
August: PLO continued, slightly less successful than before. By this time, my thoughts had begun to shift toward grad school, and by the time I moved near the end of the month, I was not playing much Poker. Up $220.
Sept/Oct/Nov: these months involved very little play. I lost a little bit online, but cashed out pretty quickly to concentrate on my studies. I think I played maybe two weekends in October and two weekends in November before beginning my final projects. I crushed the live games, though. Up almost $1000 over the course of these three months.
December: after my projects were complete, I redeposited online, but with so many new things in my life, ie grad school and lasertag, Poker just didn't seem to have the centrality or intensity from before. I played live once (today in fact) and broke about even after being down for about 3 hours. Lost a small amount, down about $50.
Overall for the year: +$1081.
I would have done much better if I could have stuck to Hold'em and PLO. Between those two games, I was up about $2300. That tells you how badly I did in the other games. Hopefully that won't affect your readings of the guides I wrote in the non-Hold'em section.
This was my worst year since I started playing seriously from a financial standpoint, but I've still never had a winning year, and given the ups and downs in my life during 2008, I guess I'm not too displeased with it. I'm much happier now.
I've accepted the fact that I will probably continue to be a winning low limit player, but likely not much more than that. Maybe I'll move up to playing as high as $5/$10 NL. But I don't think I'll ever go "pro" like I once thought. Nor do I necessarily want to. I am happy pursuing my studies, training in higher education, and playing to make a little extra money on the side for fun.
So my goal for 2009 is just to have fun playing Poker and to have another winning year. Nothing bogus about moving up, playing in the WSOP, or winning five figures online.
Congrats to Ciso for a great MTT year, and to Kingetje for absolutely crushing the cash games. Congrats to everyone else who had a winning year as well, and best of luck to all of us in 2009!
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| Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 |
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Stars Wants Me to Go Broke Every Hand
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Posted 8:27 pm in Categories: Poker |
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Twice with Aces on a pretty dry board. Once I get it in with top set, and I'm like a coin flip at best. Get it all in with trip Q's vs short stack who for some reason raised with a crap hand and hit the least likely boat ever? Even though I won two of these, felt like I was gonna burn.
PokerStars Game #23014467899: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/12/17 16:49:21 PT 2008/12/17 19:49:21 ET
Table 'Mundleria V' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Turn_Prophet ($24.50 in chips)
Seat 2: WsopSCARFACE ($97.80 in chips)
Seat 3: TBirdBaller ($25 in chips)
Seat 4: Nacho Love ($45.25 in chips)
Seat 6: 5SpeedLimit5 ($24.15 in chips)
5SpeedLimit5: posts small blind $0.10
Turn_Prophet: posts big blind $0.25
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to Turn_Prophet    
GATERDONE joins the table at seat #5
WsopSCARFACE: calls $0.25
TBirdBaller: raises $0.85 to $1.10
Nacho Love: folds
5SpeedLimit5: folds
Turn_Prophet: raises $2.55 to $3.65
WsopSCARFACE: folds
TBirdBaller: calls $2.55
* FLOP *   
Turn_Prophet: bets $7.30
TBirdBaller: raises $14.05 to $21.35 and is all-in
Turn_Prophet: calls $13.55 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($0.50) returned to TBirdBaller
* TURN * 
* RIVER * 
* SHOW DOWN *
Turn_Prophet: shows (three of a kind, Jacks)
TBirdBaller: shows     (a full house, Fours full of Jacks)
TBirdBaller collected $47.35 from pot
* SUMMARY *
Total pot $49.35 | Rake $2
Board
Seat 1: Turn_Prophet (big blind) showed and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: WsopSCARFACE folded before Flop
Seat 3: TBirdBaller showed and won ($47.35) with a full house, Fours full of Jacks
Seat 4: Nacho Love (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: 5SpeedLimit5 (small blind) folded before Flop
PokerStars Game #23014504383: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/12/17 16:50:42 PT 2008/12/17 19:50:42 ET
Table 'Mundleria V' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Turn_Prophet ($25 in chips)
Seat 2: WsopSCARFACE ($97.45 in chips)
Seat 3: TBirdBaller ($47.60 in chips)
Seat 4: Nacho Love ($45.25 in chips)
Seat 6: 5SpeedLimit5 ($24.40 in chips)
TBirdBaller: posts small blind $0.10
Nacho Love: posts big blind $0.25
GATERDONE: sits out
Turn_Prophet: posts small blind $0.10
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to Turn_Prophet   
5SpeedLimit5: raises $0.70 to $0.95
Turn_Prophet: calls $0.95
WsopSCARFACE: folds
TBirdBaller: folds
Nacho Love: calls $0.70
* FLOP * 
Nacho Love: checks
5SpeedLimit5: checks
Turn_Prophet: bets $1.75
Nacho Love: raises $6.40 to $8.15
5SpeedLimit5: folds
Turn_Prophet: raises $15.80 to $23.95 and is all-in
Nacho Love: calls $15.80
* TURN * 
* RIVER * 
* SHOW DOWN *
Nacho Love: shows    (high card Ace)
Turn_Prophet: shows (three of a kind, Kings)
Turn_Prophet collected $48.95 from pot
* SUMMARY *
Total pot $50.95 | Rake $2
Board
Seat 1: Turn_Prophet showed and won ($48.95) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 2: WsopSCARFACE (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: TBirdBaller (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Nacho Love (big blind) showed and lost with high card Ace
Seat 6: 5SpeedLimit5 folded on the Flop
PokerStars Game #23014936587: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/12/17 17:06:47 PT 2008/12/17 20:06:47 ET
Table 'Gaika' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Brothadave ($11.40 in chips)
Seat 2: tiltman72 ($28.10 in chips)
Seat 3: buttlarva ($3.45 in chips)
Seat 4: Turn_Prophet ($34.80 in chips)
Seat 5: mmiddlebass ($21 in chips)
Seat 6: Tomjuni ($15 in chips)
mmiddlebass: posts small blind $0.10
Tomjuni: posts big blind $0.25
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to Turn_Prophet  
Brothadave: calls $0.25
tiltman72: raises $0.75 to $1
buttlarva: folds
Turn_Prophet: raises $2.60 to $3.60
mmiddlebass: folds
Tomjuni: folds
Brothadave: calls $3.35
tiltman72: folds
* FLOP * 
mmiddlebass leaves the table
Brothadave: checks
Turn_Prophet: checks
* TURN * 
Brothadave: bets $7.80 and is all-in
Turn_Prophet: calls $7.80
* RIVER * 
Dreamer72 joins the table at seat #5
* SHOW DOWN *
Brothadave: shows   (three of a kind, Tens)
Turn_Prophet: mucks hand
Brothadave collected $23 from pot
* SUMMARY *
Total pot $24.15 | Rake $1.15
Board
Seat 1: Brothadave showed and won ($23) with three of a kind, Tens
Seat 2: tiltman72 folded before Flop
Seat 3: buttlarva folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Turn_Prophet (button) mucked
Seat 5: mmiddlebass (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Tomjuni (big blind) folded before Flop
PokerStars Game #23015122103: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/12/17 17:13:39 PT 2008/12/17 20:13:39 ET
Table 'Gaika' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Brothadave ($19.75 in chips)
Seat 2: tiltman72 ($42.30 in chips)
Seat 4: Turn_Prophet ($25 in chips)
Seat 5: Dreamer72 ($12.80 in chips)
Seat 6: Tomjuni ($12.15 in chips)
tiltman72: posts small blind $0.10
buttlarva: is sitting out
Turn_Prophet: posts big blind $0.25
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to Turn_Prophet
buttlarva leaves the table
Dreamer72: folds
Tomjuni: raises $0.60 to $0.85
Brothadave: folds
tiltman72: calls $0.75
Turn_Prophet: calls $0.60
* FLOP *
tiltman72: checks
Turn_Prophet: checks
gutf5 joins the table at seat #3
Tomjuni: bets $2.45
tiltman72: folds
Turn_Prophet: raises $7.35 to $9.80
Tomjuni: raises $1.50 to $11.30 and is all-in
Turn_Prophet: calls $1.50
* TURN *
* RIVER * 
* SHOW DOWN *
Turn_Prophet: shows (a full house, Queens full of Tens)
Tomjuni: mucks hand
Turn_Prophet collected $23.90 from pot
* SUMMARY *
Total pot $25.15 | Rake $1.25
Board
Seat 1: Brothadave (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: tiltman72 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Turn_Prophet (big blind) showed and won ($23.90) with a full house, Queens full of Tens
Seat 5: Dreamer72 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Tomjuni mucked 
How sick is all that? Also, did not mean to give a free card on the flop with AAxx on the second hand. Must have gotten mixed up 4-tabling.
Edit: Add another log to the fire...
PokerStars Game #23015898357: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/12/17 17:42:24 PT 2008/12/17 20:42:24 ET
Table 'Gaika' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Brothadave ($27.90 in chips)
Seat 2: tiltman72 ($7.30 in chips)
Seat 3: monica1982 ($22.55 in chips)
Seat 4: Turn_Prophet ($33.10 in chips)
Seat 5: OSHUSTLER4L ($5.30 in chips)
Seat 6: Tomjuni ($49 in chips)
monica1982: posts small blind $0.10
Turn_Prophet: posts big blind $0.25
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to Turn_Prophet  
OSHUSTLER4L: folds
Tomjuni: calls $0.25
Brothadave: calls $0.25
tiltman72: calls $0.25
monica1982: calls $0.15
Turn_Prophet: checks
* FLOP * 
monica1982: bets $1.20
Turn_Prophet: raises $3.60 to $4.80
Tomjuni: folds
Brothadave: folds
tiltman72: folds
monica1982: raises $10.80 to $15.60
Turn_Prophet: raises $17.25 to $32.85 and is all-in
monica1982: calls $6.70 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($10.55) returned to Turn_Prophet
* TURN * 
* RIVER * 
* SHOW DOWN *
monica1982: shows   (a full house, Kings full of Deuces)
Turn_Prophet: mucks hand
monica1982 collected $43.60 from pot
* SUMMARY *
Total pot $45.85 | Rake $2.25
Board
Seat 1: Brothadave folded on the Flop
Seat 2: tiltman72 (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: monica1982 (small blind) showed and won ($43.60) with a full house, Kings full of Deuces
Seat 4: Turn_Prophet (big blind) mucked
Seat 5: OSHUSTLER4L folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Tomjuni folded on the Flop
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| | Joined: | 05 Mar 2005 | | Location: | Northern California | | PokerStars Name: | Turn_Prophet |
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