Food for thought.
Common sense poker: eliminate distractions
Nothing beats common sense at the poker table. If you have KK, the board reads 4578, and your opponent check-raises you, common sense tells you the villain has a 6 for the straight, and you'd better have a very good reason to think he's bluffing if you're going to continue in the hand. Of course, if both you and the villain have a lot of money on the table, it doesn't matter if he has it or not, you're never going to be sure enough he's bluffing to justify a call in that spot. There are all kinds of common sense decisions when it comes to playing hands, but some of the most profitable common sense applies to how you approach a session before you even sit down at the tables...
My fourth week of live grinding is complete.
I played 4 of 7 days, posted 1 win and 3 losses.
I played $1/$2 NLHE.
Playing NLHE, I lost $817.
I worked a total of 15.25 hours and lost $817.
I also spent 4 hours in the WSOP Main Event satellite freeroll.
What I did right or wrong:
Forgive my language, but I ran like total dogshit this week and have to say my play suffered as the week (and my bad run) rolled on. I played hands I know better than to play in situations where my opponent showed a ton of strength. Hands like AJs, KTs, QJs, which I would normally pitch to a 3-bet (unless there is a 3rd player coming along), I not only took a flop, I also peeled too lightly on the flop to strong--and expected--continuation bets. A couple times I compounded the error by raising and trying to take the pot away, knowing they're going to call with their overpair. Bad. Just fugly.
That being said, I also played fantastic in a number of spots where I got all the money in as a big favorite (2 pair vs 1 pair, set vs 1 pair, etc), only to lose to 4-outers or runner runner. In all, I was all in with the best hand in pots of over $400 a total of 5 times and only won 1 of them.
My last two sessions I played way too passive and allowed my opponents to make hands that beat me a good dozen times. I failed to raise with the best hand and allowed the turn to be checked through too often. In most of these situations I had a top-pair hand with a draw or a pair on board. I'd value bet the river and paid off min-raises pretty much every time, only to learn my opponent hit their gutshot or 3-outer on the riv.
Goals for next week:
Tighten up, especially from early position.
Raise first-in every time. No open-limping, except with a limp-reraise plan.
Be more aggressive on the turn when I expect to have the best hand.
Fold more often to aggression when I have a medium-strength hand, especially on the river.
Play 30 hours of NLHE.
M
This morning my favorite local casino, River Spirit, conducted its WSOP Main Event satellite freeroll. Approximately 90 players showed up to compete. It's been about, well, I guess about 16 months since I last played a live NLHE tournament. Back when I played tournaments on a daily basis, I did manage to cash most of the time, but felt like my game was pretty rusty going into this one today.
The first two levels were rough. Starting stack: 10,000 chips
Level 1: 25/50; Level 2: 50/100
Raise pre with JJ, 2 callers. Flop K45. C-bet flop. Check-fold turn.
4 players limp, I overlimp Qs3s on the button. Flop a flush draw. Called flop. Called turn getting 6-1 odds. Miss and fold river.
Raise pre with QQ, 1 caller. Flop KJ6cc. C-bet flop. Check-fold turn. Villain shows KJss.
Raise pre with AdKd, 2 callers. Flop 689cc. Check flop. Fold turn.
4 players limp, I overlimp with 5d6d. Flop Kd6h7d. Checks to me, I bet the flop smallish ~40% pot, 2 callers. Turn 7s. Check-check and I check. River 3c. I fold to a smallish river bet.
Raise pre with TT, 3 callers. Flop J75. Checks to me, I check, player behind me bets. Folds to me and I call. Turn 8. Check-check. River 7. Check-check. Villain bets small and I call. He shows KJo.
By now my chip stack has dipped to 5,000. Level 3: 100/200 thru Level 9: 800/1600/200
I limp in MP w/9hTh. 3 more limpers behind me and both blinds come along. Flop Jh8h7s. SB bets 1K, BB calls, I raise to 3K, everyone folds.
Raise pre in LP with Ad9d. Button calls, BB calls. Flop KT7dd. C-bet flop, button calls. Turn is the 5c. Check-check. River 5h. I check-fold.
I'm UTG+2 and look down at 77. I shove, hoping to pick up 900 chips uncontested. Button calls, everyone else folds. Button has 99. A 7 falls on the turn and I double up.
I successfully steal the blinds 3 more times this level, with KQs, JTs, and ATs.
I basically fold every hand for an hour. I've been moved to a new, more aggressive table, with zero limping allowed. Being dealt lots of 52o, 93o, 73s type hands.
Antes start. I blind down to around 10k, then steal and get back to the 12-13k range.
UTG+1, pick up AA and raise to 4k. Button, another short-stack who nevertheless has me covered, shoves. I call (obv). He has 88. AA holds and I jump to 29k in chips.
I raise a few more times and either get no callers or no flop resistance and chip up to around 35k.
I pick up TT UTG+2. Blinds at this point are 800/1600/200. I raise to 4000. Button reraises to 15000. Shove or fold time. Button has easily 50k chips in front of him. If I fold, I'll have 29k or so to play with, and looking at the clock, blinds go up to 1000/2000/200 in 5 minutes. I decide to risk it and shove. Snap-call from button with AA. Oops. No miracles come and I'm out.
Finished 24th.
My third week of live grinding is complete.
I played 4 of 7 days, posted 1 wins and 3 losses.
I played both $1/$2 NLHE and $3/$6 LHE.
Playing LHE, I won $12.
Playing NLHE, I lost $303.
Altogether, I worked a total of 18.75 hours and lost $291.
What I did right or wrong:
I don't have anything to say either way this week about what I did well or need to work on. I game-selected well, and played well.
Why I lost this week:
This week's loss came down to coolers and losing flips. Around $50 of the loss was from bad calls or bad gambles, depending on how you want to look at it. For the most part, I won the small pots and lost the big ones. I ran KK into AA twice, QQ into KK once, and lost a 130BB pot with KQ on a board of QK229. In that last hand, I raised pre, bet pot on the flop, and my opponent c/r all in on the turn. At that point, I was pot-committed, with 2/3 of my chips already in the pot. Villain showed up with 32o for trip 2's.
My goal for next week is to log 30 hours of NLHE.
M
With poker site offices being raided in Costa Rica, the news does not look good. Props to QuadJacks for their coverage. Special thanks to DrPauly, Chuck Kidd, et al.
Live poker this week has been rough. I'll do the official results tomorrow, but it's not looking good. I've been coolered and drawn out on constantly (constantly in this case means 6 coolers over 19 hours and 4 suckouts in pots of 100BB or more). Feel okay with my play for the most part, with just two exceptions--neither of which was for a lot of money.
All that being said, I'm down just 145.5BB for the week, which in the scheme of things is not all that bad. Shit happens, it's just my turn to have it happen to me. Time to take some soap and a stiff-bristled brush and scrub the shit off, that's all.
I didn't get as much time on the felt as I'd planned, either. I had to re-plumb my bathroom. My house was built in the 1950's, and everything is lead and steel. Thankfully the plumbing is accessible from a crawlspace, and not encased in cement. But it still kicked my ass trying to cut out the old trap and replace all the pipes with new PVC. On the plus side, I should only have to do it once.
/end whine
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't FTP announce last week that they would have an official announcement this week about cashouts? I've looked but I can't find anything. Did I miss it?
M
A company declares bankruptcy, is it the parent of UB.com and Absolute Poker?
UB/AP parent company (?) files for bankruptcy
US players with funds on deposit with poker sites UB.com and Absolute Poker (the Cereus network) are facing bad news today as Madeira Fjord declares bankruptcy. If you're wondering who Madeira Fjord is, you are not alone. Last fall, the Cereus network was sold by Tokwiro Enterprises to Blanca Gaming. What is the relationship between Madeira Fjord and Blanca Gaming? Good question.
Click the link for the full schedule and buy-ins.
Mid-South Poker Classic begins May 5th
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is hosting the Mid-South Poker Classic, one of the region's premier poker tournaments. The event takes place May 5th through May 15th. A total of 25 tournaments are scheduled, with an additional 2 satellite tournaments to the championship event. Buy-ins range from $125 to $1060. Last year's MSPC Championship event was a two-day contest, attracted 77 players and awarded $24,648 to first-place.
WARNING: If you don't want to hear me whine like a little girl, stop reading. Don't like bad beat stories? Move along...nothing to read here.
Went to my closest casino, River Spirit. They have 4 tables of $1/$2 NL running, none of them are full. They put me at a table that has 2 open seats. I sit down, and immediately 2 players leave, so we're 5-handed.
NOTE: I bought in short for $100.
In my first hand, I'm UTG w/A9hh, and raise to $8. MP and CO call, everyone else folds. Flop A94ss. I lead for $16. MP folds, CO min-raises to $35. I shove for $74 , CO calls. CO has AJo. Turn 3h. River Jc. FML
I rebuy for $100, and run my stack up to $165 when this next hand comes up.
Table has filled up, and after a bunch of limpers, I'm on the button with KJo and raise to $12. BB calls, MP calls. Flop QT5hh. Checks to me, I bet $15 (pricing in my draw). BB min-raises to $30, MP folds, I call. Turn 9c. BB bets $30. I raise to $75. BB thinks for about 4 seconds and announces he's all in. I insta-call. BB has 9To. River Td. FML
I rebuy for $100, and run my stack up to $265 when this next hand comes up.
A reg UTG+1 raises to $10 pre, I'm on the button with 77 and call. I look at his stack...looked like he had a stack of $175 to 180. He should have at least $200 to make this call, but it's close enough. Flop J74r, bingo. UTG+1 bets $15. I pause briefly and raise to $35. He calls. Turn Ks. He checks. I bet $55. He shoves, I call. He has KK. FML.
Turns out I had him covered by $56 (meaning he had $209 to start the hand after all--he must have been holding some chips in his hand I didn't see) and I immediately cashed out and went home.
The first two were no big deal, shrugged it off, kept playing my A game. Can't decide if I should have gotten away from my set on the third one. I tend to think not. He could easily have AK/AA. Not going to worry about it too much.
My decision to quit was to prevent tilt should a 4th bad beat occur. It will be much easier to return to the game tomorrow, fresh and confident, than if I were to take another beat for a bunch of money. My stop loss is 3 BI's, and while I didn't lose that much, if I bought back in and lost again, I'd be over the limit, so I quit. The game will still be there tomorrow. And so will I.
River Spirit gives you an added incentive to accumulate hours in their poker room.
River Spirit announces $15K freeroll tournaments
Tulsa poker players have an added incentive to choose the River Spirit casino as their venue for the months of May, June, and July. The River Spirit poker room is rewarding its players with a monthly $15K freeroll. To qualify, players must log 40 hours of live play during each qualification period. The top 15 players in tournament points during each qualification period also qualify. Each freeroll tournament is scheduled for the second Saturday following the end of each qualfication period.
My second week of live grinding is complete.
I played 4 of 7 days, posted 2 wins, 1 break-even and 1 loss.
I played both $1/$2 NLHE and $3/$6 LHE.
Playing LHE, I lost $363.
Playing NLHE, I won $1521.
Altogether, I worked a total of 30 hours and won $1158. ($38.60/hr)
What I did right:
I chose games with the fewest regulars, whenever I could.
I was all in with the best hand every time but once in heads-up pots.
Did not play scared.
Developed reads and went with them (was wrong only once--that I know of).
Didn't encounter any maniacs this week, just value bet my made hands and picked off some bluffs.
Played a fundamentally sound game and didn't get fancy.
Successfully value-bet the river with 1-pair hands more often.
What I did wrong/need to work on:
Spent too much time playing LHE. The LHE game cost me $20/hr just to play this week. Compare that to being paid $169/hr to play NLHE, and my decision is clear: give up LHE and play NLHE exclusively.
My goal for next week is to log 30 hours of NLHE.
M
