Poker Ramblings of cmitch

Contact Info:

cmitchpoker@gmail.com

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...."

I think that describes this week vs. last week pretty well. I got off to a rough start in the 50K Hands Challenge (click here for 50k hands details) thanks to running horribly. Patience pays off. This week, I think I ran normal, got in a ton of hands (for me) and played great (and won 13+ buy-ins). I lost a few pots were I was a big favorite, but probably not many more than would be expected. I ran a set into an overset when both me and my opponent were deep. None of this phased me this week. I was able to shake off the beats and move on without a second thought.

I was in a zone over the weekend. Things were clicking on all levels. I felt like I was making the right decisions most of the time - proper bet sizing, making tough laydowns, making tough calls when things seemed a little fishy, causing players to commit on draws when they have incredibly horrible odds, etc., etc.

I even decided to try to 6 table on my 17" laptop when I had no distractions. I probably played 2-3 hours while 6 tabling and was able to focus and play well. I have always had problems with more than 4 tables in the past.

Another thing that I did was make some adjustments for 1/2nl. A lot of the adjustments would be -EV at 2/4 or 5/10, but were clearly +EV at certain 1/2nl tables. I often found myself sitting at a table with a ton of calling stations. Raising and three betting didn't work well, so I found myself floating a ton and then shutting down if I missed. These guys would call you all the way down with 3rd pair, so when I hit I would keep betting hard. I, also, flat called a lot more in position instead of three betting and then tried to outplay opponents on the flop with position on them. I'll try to get into a few examples of the difference in play between 1/2 and 2/4 in the next few days.

50K Hands Challenge
1/2nl
Hands Goal - 25,000 hands in 1 month; 5 ptbb/100
Hands Current - 10,017 hands; 4.64 ptb/100
Total current profit/loss = +$1,857.20

I am on track with the number of hands and the ptbb/100 should increase from here. I was just shy of 10ptbb/100 for the hands since last week.

A few hands - I'll try to post more later in the week. There were several that I wanted input on but they kind of got lost in the mix while I was 6 tabling.

This hand is a good example of slowing down to keep the pot smaller and letting a player that likes to bluff keep betting into the pot. The preflop betting is standard. On the flop, I made a smaller bet to try to induce a big raise with a hand like AK or KQ (both well within his range). I didn't think that he had a flush draw because he had a raised the flop in the past with draw. I decided to check-call with the intention of getting a lot in on the river. If I re-raised him on the turn or lead out big, I was probably losing any action. The river was a scare card for me. A10 was definitely a possibility based on how he played the hand. I check called figuring that I was ahead. There was no reason to bet the river. If I bet, he was folding most hands that I beat and raising me with most hands that beat me. If I checked, he might bluff at the pot. I checked and he made an odd bet for him. He usually bet pot on the river with a hand that he thought would get paid off. He was bluffing with his gutshot. I think that slowing down and allowing him to control the pot paid off well here. (A case of knowing your opponent - against some other players this might have been an easy lay down.)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1364910

Another example of letting an aggressive opponent bet your hand for you.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1364940

These two hands at the same table in the same session were the start of digging out of the hole from last week.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1364948 - Standard - KK holds up against JJ.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1364943 - I was priced in, never disguised my hand and still got paid off - cooler for the other guy.

Dem Quads Bitches!!!! Over re-raising for value. There is no way that I would make this size raise against a lot of opponents when this deep. It would be -EV. I had played the hand so weak on all streets that I didn't think he could put me on the a full house and his min raise on the river screamed incredible strength to me. I over shoved thinking that this guy would call the shove with a full house or an Ace or King high flush. I was shocked at the call, but didn't mind it. :)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1364952

A Shot of me trying to 6 table - It is still a little mind numbing for me right now.


Graph - 50k Hands Challenge to date (since 8/1) The thing that I like best about the graph is that it looks like the graph of a good stock - higher highs and higher lows.


FTOPS

I wound up directly buying into FTOPS Event #3 - $216 PL Holdem. Nothing exciting happened and I busted out a couple of hours in with top two vs. a set.

I am looking forward to the FTOPS Event $7 -$1k 6 max. I satellited in a couple of weeks ago. This is the FTOPS event that I am the most excited about, especially now that I am getting back into the rhythm of 6 max games. It should be a tough field and the winner will have to get lucky/not unlucky, but it should be fun!!

Good Luck to everyone playing tonight.

4 responses to "50K Hands Update and FTOPS"

  1. gl in the 1k...hopefully i'll see u in the ME when i sat in.

    Pseudo_Doctor

  2. nice turnaround mitch.

    smokkee

  3. Cmitch, is that graph from PT? How did you filter it by the number of hands?

    Alan aka RecessRampage

  4. The graph is pokergrapher (a separate program). I have it filtered by all hands since 8/1/07.

    cmitch