O-Poker

Full Tilt Poker is doing so many things right this year.  I predict it won't be long before they overtake Pokerstars as the premiere site on the internet.

Let's see:

1.  Rush Poker - Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

2.  People asked for Rush Poker with antes - they added it

3.  Elimination of short stacks from cash games - Doulbe Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!  - although due to Rush Poker I haven't played any of the regular tables lately.

4. Added Player Search Widget (and widgets in general)

5.  Revised HH replayer to reduce the amount of memory the software uses.

I'm really excited about 2010 in poker and can't wait to see what FTP will bring us next!!!

I decided to try to complain less this year.  It isn't really a New Year's resolution.  I just want to be more positive about things poker and non-poker related.

This post isn't meant to be a whiny "whoa is me" post.  In the past I might have posted the graph below with something about how bad I am running.  You'll get none of that today.  This post is really to highlight how much my perspective on things has changed.

The first couple of days of February haven't treated me well.  I have played 5 or 6 sessions of 50NL full ring Rush Poker on FTP (although HEM has them grouped as 4 because I had too short of intervals between some sessions.)  I am barely break even (up $58) over 4,092 hands, but I am running $306 below expected value.  This might have been a reason to get frustrated in the past, but not this time.  I haven't let losing 80/20s, 70/30s, or 60/40s effect my play.  No tilt for me!!  Let me say that again - No tilt for me!!  My mind is in a much better place poker wise.  As I mentioned in my previous post, if you tilt easily then Rush Poker is not for you.  Bad beats will lead to tilting and spewing your bankroll.

I don't know if I have had that "Ah ha" moment recently, but it sure feels like it.  My biggest leak in the past has been tilt.  It might not be the full on definition of tilt, but it is/was tilt.  I didn't spew stacks, but I would get very stubborn when running bad and make a call or raise when a fold was the obvious choice.  My tilt would make me less likely to think someone really had a hand, when all I had to do was step back and look at the information to know that it was -EV to continue.  I haven't completely fixed this problem, but I have reduced it dramatically.  I sit back and really exam if I just got unlucky or if I played a hand poorly after I lose a big pot.  If I think it was due to poor play, I might sit out for a few minutes and review my biggest winners and losers of the current session as a gut check to see if I feel like I am playing good or bad.  If I feel I am playing bad I will usually quit for at least an hour or so.

Bottom line for me - Complaining less = Tilting Less.  I'm not in a "Rush" to post my latest bad beat on the forums now.  No one cares.  Bad beats happen.  Everyone has a story of running bad or how horrible their beat was.  Again, no one cares.  The real question is will the beat lead to you eventually being a stronger or weaker player - both short and long term?

Next time you get your set in on the flop and your opponent hits perfect, perfect for the suckout, maybe sit back and say, "I got unlucky, but if I keep playing against guys like this I am going to be a huge winner in the long term."

Good luck at the tables!! Stay Tilt-Free!!

I was going to write a long detailed post about Rush Poker, but I think every blogger/poker website has already written almost everything that you could say on the subject (click one of the links on the side if you wan to read a more about Rush).  I still want to mention a few things about it though.

1.  As others have posted it is the crack of online poker! - I four tabled for 4 straight hours yesterday and averaged 1,140 hands/hour.  I don't remember playing for four straight hours with no breaks anytime recently.

2.  If you tilt easily don't play - Since you see so many hands/hour, you will see more bad beats in a day than you might usually see in a week or two.  If bad beats cause you to tilt then Rush Poker is definitely not for you.  Spewing after a couple of bad beats could cripple a bankroll when you are playing 1k hands/hour.


3.  Breakeven stretches and Downswings don't last long - I had a 15k breakeven stretch that might have been frustrating in the past, but isn't a big deal now because it was over the course of 4 days.

4.  Rakeback - At 50NL full ring, my rakeback is averaging $9.21/1k hands after close to 40k hands.

5.  HUDs are coming - HEM has a crude limited HUD work around that writes to your notes file.  It is helpful in some spots but a little frustrating when you are used to the extended HUD stats.  I'm guessing that within the next week or so, both HEM and PT3 will have fully functional HUDs.


6.  Nits are everywhere - As the rush games get tighter and tighter a HUD will almost become a necessity in order to maximize profits against the nits.  The good players will be able to bet the nitty guys off their overpairs and know which players to fold their over pairs to when they see that big turn check/raise.

7.  Adjusting your play based on your stack - This might not make sense, but when I have a huge stack (400bb+ or more) I get played back at a ton more.  I have also noticed some players are more willing to call an over shove with  mediocre holdings against someone with a lot of chips.  I'm not sure the exact mentality of some of these guys, but I'm guessing that they think you bluffed your way to a lot of chips.

Must. Go Play. Rush. NOW!!!

I just finished updating the blog template and the bloglines list.

Please let me know if the template looks messed up.  I put it up pretty quick and have only viewed it in Firefox.

I think my blogroll still needs a little work.  I might have a missed a few blogs - let me know if you want to be added.

It has been forever since I update my blogroll.  There are several blogs that I read daily that aren't even on the list.  I'm also going to delete the blogs that haven't updated in a very very long time.

If you want me to add your blog to my blogroll, let me know via a comment or email.

Anyone know a good site for blogspot templates?  I am trying to come up with a new layout for the blog.

I have a lot of poker thoughts on my mind that are itching to ooze out. Look for new regular posting in the near future.

Happy New Year!!!

Here's to an awesome 2010 (pretty crazy)!!!!

When I was a kid, I used to wonder what I would be doing when 2000 rolled around. I never wondered what I would be doing in 2010. That was way too far out there (Sci-Fi stuff). Surely, we would have flying cars, robot maids, recreational space travel, colonies on the moon, etc, etc.

Hmm.... I wonder what I'll be doing when 2050 rolls around.

Happy New Year George and Judy Jetson!!!

Wow. Has it really been over 3 weeks since my last post?

I was going to do a New Orleans recap, but never really got around to it. Everything is pretty fuzzy now, so I'll give you the quick version.

We stayed in NO for four days. I only played 2 sessions of poker - one session Saturday late morning/afternoon and one session from about 1 AM - 5 AM Sat night/Sun morning.

Saturday Morning Session

I put my name on the list for 1/2NL and 2/5NL. There were a few 1/2 games running and they had a list to start a 2/5. I got called for the 1/2 first. When I sat down, I asked the chip runner how much was the maximum buy-in. She turned to the dealer and he said it looks like about $800. (Apparently, the max buy-in is up to the biggest stack on the table.) She laughed and said how much do you want to buy-in for. The second biggest stack was around $500, so I bought in for $500.

Nothing real exciting happened during this session. My biggest hand was an open ended straight flush draw with QhTh.

Seat 2 raises to $6 from EP. 4 calls. I call otb.
Flop comes Jh9h4x.

Seat 2 (stack around $250) bets around $15.
MP (stack around $150) calls.
I raise to $60-$70 (don't remember exactly)

Seat 2 agonizes and eventually folds.
MP insta-shoves.
I call.

MP has A9 and I miss.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I finished up the afternoon down approx. $100.

Sat Night/Sun Morning Session

I wound up deciding to play 1/2NL again after my wife went to sleep. I got down to the poker room around 1 AM after drinking from about 2 PM. It seemed like a pretty good idea at the time. I even decided to stop drinking after my first beer in the poker room and switched to Diet Coke.

I think if I ever go back to NOLA, I will only play poker late at night on the weekends.

I was getting hit by the deck and running over the table for about 2 hours. The best part about the game was that the players had a clue, but they did not know how to fold.

I stacked one guy for $300 with my 67 against his AK on a 668JA flop. He had put almost all of his money in before the river after only betting $6 preflop.

At one point I had built my $500 starting stack up to $1,300. Another table broke and they moved the players to our table. There was a guy sitting two to my left that had me covered with his $1,600 stack. LOL.

I would give more details of the late night session, but it is definitely a little cloudy. After losing a big pot with KK vs. AA I decided it was time to cash out with a tidy little $650 profit. Not too shabby for someone that had been drinking for 11 hours straight.

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I'm bummed out that I didn't go to the WBPT. There are a lot of great recaps of the trips out there.

Go congratulate Hoyazo - He had a huge score in one of the Mini-FTOPS events last night!!!

I'll try to start posting more.

I was in New Orleans this weekend (trip report to follow later today or tomorrow) and forgot to unregister from the FTOPS Satellite Challenge Freerolls. They had 4 separate freerolls that you qualified for by winning 2, 3, 4, and 5 satellites to different FTOPS tourneys. (I think I won sats to 6 different FTOPS, but didn't play any of them).

I checked my email when I got home last night and I guess I finished in the bottom money spot (90th out of 291 players) in one of them.

"You finished the tournament in 90th place.
There has been $40.00 added to your account."

Forgetting to unregister cost me $13.40 in rakeback. So, thanks to sliding into a money spot in a freeroll that I didn't play, I netted $26.60 in online poker over the weekend even though I didn't log into my poker account once.

I was going to post a Recap of Joe Cada's Letterman interview, but Short Stack Shamus has already done an awesome job of recapping his appearance. Go check out his post.

I only had a few additional thoughts:

1. Cada seemed stiff at times, but more relaxed than most of us would be on Letterman at 22 years old. (or ever)

2. Letterman was prepared for the interview, but at times seemed to be at a loss for questions, or maybe at a loss for funny commentary.

3. Kudos to Cada for mentioning that he started playing on "Pokerstars" at 18 instead of 17. Also, Kudos for not wearing PS logos for the interview.

4. Cada did a decent job explaining that poker was different than gambling, but missed the opportunity to explain how the skill aspects of the game outweigh the luck factors.

Overall, he did a great job and should be a great spokesman for poker.

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EDIT: Link to his CNN interview

Link to his CNBC interview

Just wanted to remind everyone to set their DVRs to record Letterman tonight. Joe Cada is going to be on his show. The guy is young, but from some of his initial interviews it sounds like he is going to be a good spokesman for the next year. He has a true internet background and is very likely to speak in support of internet poker. He told Time magazine, "I support the right to play poker online. Poker isn't gambling. It's a hobby, an activity, a game. It's not about luck.""

Also, if you missed Saturday Night Live this weekend they mentioned him during the weekend update. They showed a picture of him with the $$$ and mentioned that he dropped out of college to play poker and won $8.5 Million. Then said something along the lines of, "This should be a lesson to other kids thinking about dropping out of school. You aren't him and you aren't going to win the WSOP ME."

Should be interesting to see how well he does on Dave tonight.

One of the better players at the Final Table won (even if he did have to suckout a ton to win)

Bax/Sheets run good.

The people that take the Luck side of the Luck vs. Skill argument where given some ammunition.

ESPN did a great job of editing the FT in such a short time.
- I'm glad they added an additional 30 mins to the coverage for the heads up portion.

- My biggest complaint of their coverage is how quick they rushed things after Ivey busted out. At 10:50, there were 4 players remaining. By 11:00, they showed two bust outs and two commercial breaks.

- I really wish ESPN would sell a DVD set of the entire Final Table with whole cards. They could dub the Bluff Radio coverage over the top of the footage that doesn't have Norm/Lon commentary.

Next time you see one of those posts where someone is complaining about online poker being rigged because their opponent flopped a set against them or hit a 3-5 outer on the river, remember some of these hands. Live poker is so rigged.

Saout must have been playing really tight and staying out of Ivey's way for Ivey to let go of those Jacks preflop when he was so short.

How long is Kevin Schaffel going to be having nightmares of his AA losing to KK?

How do you get all in preflop as the biggest stack against the 2nd biggest stack with AQ?

How do you get all in preflop with 22 against a very solid player for 40BBs?

Every time I started feeling like Darvin Moon was a decent player trying (a little too hard) to portray the "I'm the worst player here image," he would do something really stupid.

- I can understand his logic for trying to bluff people out of pots, but I don't understand his thinking with KQ. I also don't understand why he lied to his family about what he had (QQ instead of KQ). Maybe he was too embarrassed? I did enjoy his reasoning for why he would have folded QQ there getting 1,000,000,000 to 1 pot odds to call.

- The not calling with KQ will probably be talked about for a while, but I think his QJ hand was a bigger mistake. How does he call off his entire stack heads up with QJo? He still would have had plenty of chips if he folded. I know that once the hands were turned up it was the correct call, but he couldn't have known that he was against an underpair.

I think non-poker players probably enjoyed the coverage. I played in golf tourney on Monday. A couple of non-poker players started talking about the WSOP ME. One guy immediately said, "Don't tell me who won. I'm going to watch tomorrow night and I don't want to know who won." He doesn't gamble or play poker, so I was a little surprised how into the WSOP he was.

Goodbye, 2009 WSOP. Time to start planning for the 2010 WSOP. I have the itch to play in the 2010 Main Event now.

I am getting one small benefit of the poor economy - severely discounted vacations. As recent as a year ago, the only offers that I ever received from Harrahs were for free nights in Las Vegas during the week and reduced/free nights during the WSOP. I guess Harrahs started getting desperate to fill up their hotels around the country, because I started receiving weekly (sometimes 6-8 per month) free/reduced air/hotel offers to various Harrahs properties around the country. A couple of months ago, my wife and I decided to book one of their offers to New Orleans. Airfare for me and my wife, transfers to/from Harrahs New Orleans, and four nights (Thurs-Sun) all for $198 total.

We don't head out until later in the month, but I am starting to try to figure out the best places to eat, drink, play poker, etc, etc. We haven't been to NO in 9-10 years.

Hopefully, some of you have been there more recently.

Where is the best place to play poker? Harrahs? Are there even any other places?

Do they run any daily/weekly mtts?

What limits usually run?

Any suggestions on bars/restaurants/things to do?

My plan for October was to try to get back on track. I decided to really focus on my game and try plugging as many leaks as possible from major leaks all the way down to the minor leaks. I played mostly 50NLHE/PLHE during October with a sprinkling of 100NL mixed in (usually on the weekends). I also wound up playing more live poker than usual this month.

Online Cash Games = $+1,018.95 (avg of 3.30 ptbb/100)
Online Tourneys/SNGs = -$3.20
Rakeback = +$439 (including 2 a day bonus from Sept)
Live Poker = +$560
Staking = -$26

Total Online = $1,428.75
Total Live = $560
Overall Total = $1988.75

Biggest Winning Day of the Month = $562 (all at 50NL)
Biggest Losing Day of the Month = -$229 (all at 50PL)



Overall, I feel pretty good about my play this month. I actually lost 3 buy-ins at 100NL, and still finished up decent for the stakes that I played. I had a little trouble adjusting to 50NL at the beginning of the month, but think that I eventually made the correct adjustments. I still have some leaks, but at least I have identified them and am doing my best to avoid them.

My biggest leak by far is playing after being out drinking. Almost all of my biggest losing sessions this month were after a night out. I remember one night specifically this month. I went to a professional organization meeting after work that included several beers. I made it home around 10 PM. It was a Tuesday night, so I fired up the WSOP on the DVR. I had decided that I wasn't going to play since I had been drinking. About 30 minutes later I decided to fire up the laptop, convincing myself that I was just going to play long enough to get 200 FTPs for the day. I wound up turning the computer off 3 hours later down 4 buy-ins.

My second biggest leak is playing when I shouldn't be playing. I am doing much better with this one. A good example is this past Saturday night (Halloween and FL/GA football game day). I drank a few beers while watching the Gators stomp the Bulldogs. I switched to water towards the end of the game. Once it started getting dark we took the kids trick-or-treating. Several hours later we got the kids to bed. I was sober, but exhausted. I was still tempted to play some online poker, but forced myself to not to. Yeah me!!!

I am going to continue to play mainly 50NL/PL for at least the next week or two before hopefully switching to mainly 100NL.

Good luck to everyone in November.

FRIDAY

My wife and I made a quick trip to Biloxi this weekend for our anniversary (9th one - just like another blogger) thanks to a cheap air/hotel offer from Harrahs. (I guess those Rio table game hours are paying me back a little.) The offer gave us the option of leaving from Tampa or Jacksonville. My Mom lives in Jax and agreed to watch the kids, so Jax it was.

I felt a little sketchy heading to the airport Friday morning. We had no tickets, emails, or letters showing that we had reservations. I had expressed my concern about this a week prior to one of the Total Rewards reps and she said, "No worries. Just go up to the Continental counter with your IDs. They will give you the tickets." Amazingly, we arrived at the airport and the lady behind the counter gave us our Continental Express tickets. She also charged us $20 for a checked bag - guess we should have taken two carry-ons instead of one big suitcase.

The flight was pretty quick. We landed, picked up our suitcase, boarded the shuttle to the hotel, and were in our room at the Grand Biloxi in few short hours later.

After showering and changing, we headed down to check out the casino. No poker room. I knew that going in, but it obviously wouldn't have been my first choice of places to stay since there was no poker room and the casinos with poker rooms were about 2 miles away. I did LOL at the people playing the table games. The Grand Biloxi was running a promotion - play 30 minutes and get a free buffet. Of course we sat (at a roulette table) to grind out our free buffet. During our 30 minutes at the table, I heard two people ask the pit boss if they had been there for 30 mins yet. We left the table when my $100 buy-in was gone (about 35 mins). My wife had doubled her $100, so we broke even plus two free buffets. Wooohoooo!!! :)

The Grand Biloxi had one good thing going for them that helped make up for the lack of a poker room - free limo service even if you were heading to their competitor's casino. Not too shabby. It was the same cost as a cab after tipping the driver. After grinding out our free buffet, we took the limo to the Beau Rivage.

The Beau Rivage was much shorter than I imaged from pictures that you see online. I called it the Mini-Bellagio because the casino was like a miniature version of the Bellagio - same fonts on the signs, similar chips, similar finishes, etc - only with less stuff. We basically checked out the mini-B to get our bearings, grabbed a drink at the bar and then headed next door to the Hard Rock.

I was pretty impressed by the Hard Rock casino. My wife was going to head to the Rick Springfield concert while I played some poker in their very very small poker room. The room had probably 6-8 tables, but there was only one running when I arrived. We managed to get a second 1/2 NL uncapped game going about 30 minutes later. The table was full of nits, especially for a live low limit no limit game. No joke. I saw several hands that wound up with chopped blinds when the table was full and a ton more that consisted of raise to $5, fold around. I managed to stack someone for $100 with AQ against their KK on a Q high flop, Ace turn.

About 45 minutes later the poker room manager thankfully moved me to a seat at the other game running. It was so much juicier. There were at least two really soft spots with a lot of money on the table. I saw a donk chase a flush with horrible odds all the way to the river. He overbet the pot on the river when he obviously hit and was called by top two. (Top two later proved to be one of the better players at the table, so there must have been some history for him to make the call.)

I won a few big pots. One against the donk when I had about $375-$400 in front of me. He had about $1k. (I was really kicking myself for not buying in deeper.)

Two limpers.
I raise to $7 from mid position with AQo.
Donk otb calls. BB calls. Two limpers call.

Flop is TJKr. Bingo!! Now, how do I extract as much as possible from the donk.

Checks to me. I bet $20. Donk and BB call. Two limpers fold.

Turn is a blank.
BB checks. I bet $75. Donk makes it $275. BB folds. I shove. donk calls with KT. River blank. Just like that I'm up to $850ish from my starting stack of $200.

I run it up to as high as $1,050 before leaving with $800 (+$600) in about 3 hours of play.

The Rick Springfield concert was over pretty quick. It started at 8 PM (doors opened at 6:30) and the women (and a few poor men that were dragged to the concert) started filing out of the concert hall around 9:30.

The guys at the poker table started talking about the concert. I sat there and just listened for a little while until one of them said, "There are a lot of 40 year old guys that are going to get laid tonight."

I jokingly replied, "Hey! My wife went to that concert.....but I'm not 40 yet."

Less than 30 seconds later my wife walked up to the table. :)

We had some drinks at the bar with a few people that she met at the concert before heading back to our hotel.

SATURDAY

Saturday was a great sleep in day. It has been a while since I've slept in that late. We had a late lunch at the crappy Grand Biloxi Buffet. If I had know how bad the buffet was, I don't think that I would have grinded out the free buffet.

The rest of the day consisted of playing poker at the mini-Bellagio (Beau Rivage) while my wife relaxed, followed by watching the Gator Game and some more late night poker.

I had some ups and downs at the poker table playing 2/5 NL and wound up down $800 for the day thanks in part to a couple of hands. One I played poorly and one I don't think I should have played differently.

Poorly played hand

I was on the button with 8h2h (around $400 stack - hadn't topped off after bleeding down a little). The entire table limped to me, so I called also - mistake #1.

BB raised to $20. He only loses 3 players, so I decide to call again - mistake #2.
SB calls.

Flop (Pot - $155) - Flop 88T

BB checks. Mid position bets $60. I decided to just call. SB thinks for a minute and calls. I really didn't like the SB calling since he was playing 100% of his hands preflop and giving up after a lot of flops.

Turn (Pot - $335) - Ax

SB checks. MP bets $80. I just called - didn't really like this, but I had gotten too deep into the hand and the pot was too large relative to my remaining stack. SB shoved. MP folded. I really knew that I was behind but the pot was now $575 + $250ish ($825). I had to call $250 to win $825. I can't fold here even though I'm fairly certain that I'm beat. Can anyone make the case for folding? I don't think so because there are too many river cards that could result in chops against his range of random 8x hands. There is even a possibility of the pot currently being a chop of the outside shot of him having something like AT.

I reluctantly called. He had K8. I didn't improve on river.

Top pair and Flush draw - no reads on player

The next big hand that I lost was literally my very first hand after being moved to a new table late Saturday night. (Our table had just broke after a couple of players decided to call it a night.)

I was in Seat 10 in the cutoff. Two limpers. I limped along with 9h7h.

The button (Seat 1 with around $550) raises to $20. Both limpers call. I call.

Flop - 9x6h4h.

Checks around to button. He bets $75. Fold back to me.

I raise to $275. - Thoughts on the size of this bet?

Button thinks for quite a while and finally shoves for a little less than $300 more. I call and don't improve. He turns over TT for the win.

I don't mind getting all the money in on the flop in that spot. Any thoughts on playing this differently?

A little while later, I left the Mini-B down $800 at poker for the day.

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All and all, I had a great time despite being up $900 overall at one point and leaving down $100. I don't think that I would recommend Biloxi for a vacation unless it was to someone within driving distance that was looking for a weekend get-a-way just to gamble. There wasn't much else to do there. The casinos where relatively small, but had that small local feel to them plus the southern hospitality.