O-Poker

Fire destroyed Vinnay's friend's house on Christmas. He lost everything. To make matters worse, he was laid off from a long time job 2 weeks ago.

Even just a small donation will help. Go to the blog that Vinnay put together at HelpJeffOut and make a donation.

From Vinnay's blog:

"A friend of mine, Jeff, has had an unfortunate Christmas. His home was destroyed by a fire on christmas morning and declared a total loss. Fortunately, he was not home at the time and no one was hurt, but he did lose his cat Maurice, along with all of his possessions. The fire was started in his tenants apartment, and quickly spread throughout the house. To make matters worse, he was just laid off from his long time manufacturing job.

Jeff is a home game poker player, and reader of many of your blogs. He is a RPG'er, and beer drinker. He is a hard-working fucker who has battled dyslexia his whole life. He's a toker, and he only has one ball. He's a flyers fan (I guess I can forgive him for that). He's one of the most generous people I know. And he needs some help.

We have set up a site to help raise some money for him to help get him back on his feet. If you can give that would be great, but please do me a favor and link up the site for me.

http://helpjeffout.blogspot.com"

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Dolphins going from worst to AFC East Champs!!! Go Phins!!!!



oh yeah and GO GATORS!!!

I was on the lucky side of this hand in a limit holdem blind battle last night. (It still counts even though I only used 1 of my whole cards.)

It looks like pokerstars is in beta testing with a pin number (input by clicking on numbers with the mouse) and a RSA security token (a USB key that has to be attached to your computer to play). Pretty Awesome!!!

This is great news and should dramatically reduce the amount of hacking. Hopefully, FTP will follow suit or is currently working on similar security.

It looks like you will have the option of using the pin or the rsa token, so it probably won't cause a wait for new or casual users.

One of the beta testers has posted his initial thoughts in a 2+2 thread (link to thread).

Quote from the thread:

"FWIW I first thought the PIN would be useless. Then when I tried it and realized the numbers are in a different order each time, I changed my mind... this is total protection from keyloggers as long as your email password is secure (and you don't type it... I realize some people do, such as those who use webmail accounts rather than pop3).

Anyone that can get at your email can still get your PIN no problem if they have your password. But as long as your email password is different from your pokerstars password, this does protect you from all kinda of Phishing... plus if you use the same password for Stars as you do for something else and that password database is poorly protected or just a straight-out scam, this would save you.

I know a few people who went to 'poker forums' linked to via AIM chat with hackers... they then promptly created accounts, with the same username/password they use for stars, giving the hacker their login info. This would stop that, as well as a few other things.

I'm going to be a RSA Token user myself, but we'll have to wait a bit longer for that."

I posted some goals for Nov 19 - Dec 31 on Nov 19th. It mostly focused around limit holdem. I was feeling good about the game and after a really good run (around $1.60/hand over 10k+ hands), I felt like it was the game for me. Now, I'm not so sure. Maybe, it is just running bad (with a little bit of tilt mixed back in). I'm not sure. I'm still up at LHE but have given back around 2/3rds of what I won. It isn't fun and I'm thinking that I was just running extremely well at the beginning. The downswings in limit can be brutal, depsite the fact that it is LIMIT.

The good news is I turned a lot of my pokerstars FPPs into cash and am on the positive side of the MTTs.

So, I'm giving up the goals I set. I'm not really sure why I ever set number of hands type goals. I think it forces me to play when I normally wouldn't.

I'm not off track, but feel like I need to get back on track. (Not sure if that makes sense, but I am always hard on myself when I feel like I am playing below my capabilities.) I have taken quite a big break from NLHE and I think I am missing it. I'll probably screw around with some tourneys and cash games over the next few days before deciding where to focus next.

GL and GO GATORS!!!

It was a small field, but it had a very nice overlay.

I was scanning the tourneys on pokerstars and saw that the $109 HORSE tourney with a $5k guarantee only had 25 people registered and was about to start. I decided to give it a shot and wound up winning the thing 3 1/2 hours later.

It was $2,250 for 1st thanks to the $1,800 overlay. Weeeeee!!!!

I wound up winning it heads up because my opponent didn't seem comfortable with heads up LHE. He was using his entire time bank on every street eagerly hoping the O8 round would get there. All the while I was eating away at his stack and finished him off in the 2nd hand of O8.

(my sn on ps is sportingimag)

I'll make this a quick update since I've got a busy day in front of me.

Goal Update (11/19 - 12/31)

1. Play 30k hands of LHE

I ran pretty bad since the last update. I am sitting at -$1,200 over almost 6k hands. The biggest losses came from a couple of bad 30/60 LHE sessions where I mainly had 2nd best hands and lost one big pot (capped on every street except river) to a guy chasing a flush and hitting vs. my set.

I'll probably stick with 5/10 and 10/20 for a little while and see how things go.

2. Play my PCA step tickets

I have played several step tourneys and am down to one Step 2 ticket and one Step 3 ticket.

3. Make an attempt to play at least one PCA super sat.

I haven't play one yet. I am going to try to satellite into the $650 sat on Sunday. (last shot for me)

4. Play at least 15 MTTs and maintain a positive ROI.

I think I played 1 or 2 and didn't cash in either. I'll check before the next update.

Good News

The last week wasn't all bad. I was able to turn around 40k pokerstar FPPs into around $2k by playing the 5,400 FPP Sunday Million sats. I then used the T$ to play the double or nothing sngs.

I finally made the time to play one of the BoDonkey tourneys last night. I had a blast.

I don't know everyone's screen name at Bodog yet, so it took a few orbits before I realized Waffles was at my table. Rizen was also at the table (two to my left), so I was looking forward to shoving atc against him to try to suckout for the bounty. Unfortunately, he had a family emergency and wasn't able to make the tourney. (Hopefully, all is well.)

Shortly after I realized who waffles was, I wound up busting him when we got all in on a 9 high flop with my K9 vs. his gutshot which turned into a open ended flush straight and flush draw on the turn. Luckily for me, he didn't hit one of his 28 outs (his calculation) and I busted him out. The bustout came five days late, since he had a bounty on him last Thursday.

It was good to see a few faces, (errr, screen names) that I haven't played with in a while. Unfortunately, I got knocked out by one of them, TripJax, when we got all in preflop with my QQ vs. his AK for the chip lead. Ace on the flop and GG me.

I had a blast playing blogger poker and plan to try and play again next week (not sure if there is a tourney tomorrow night).

I was able to get in a decent amount of hands since Wednesday in between a Friday night Christmas party (yeah, pretty early for a Xmas party), a trip to the Gainesville for the Gator's stomping of the Citadel (yeah, that's right they managed to beat the powerhouse), and completing a project over the weekend.

Goals (from 11/19 to 12/31) Check up

1. Play 30,000 Hands of LHE (mix of 6 max and Full Ring)
I put in 2,790 hands of LHE with a profit of $862.50. I was all over the place and bounced above and below the waffles (break even) mark for the first 2k hands. I then went on a huge heater followed by the chasers getting there. The graphs look pretty funny because it includes a mix of 5/10, 10/20, 15/30, and 30/60. I would prefer to play 10/20 and 15/30 Full Ring LHE, but the games don't run all the time. All the hands were on pokerstars since the 5/10 Full Ring LHE games rarely get started on FTP.

I think that I struggled with getting too complacent when multi-tabling and not paying enough attention to changes in how other players at the tables were playing against me or which players were tilting/spewing. I am going to try to pay more attention and will probably cut down from 4 to 2 (or 1) tables when I find myself not focusing enough.

Pokerstars FPPs (I'll probably devote a post just to the PS VIP system later)

I made 8,633 FPPs which is equivalent to an additional $138. I'm platinum star and haven't played enough on PS to make supernova this year.

I'm not sure how to calculate your MGR with Holdem Manager (anyone know how to get this number), but I think that I am getting a much higher RB % with pokerstars' VIP program than the 27% RB on FTP. According to a 2+2 article, the RB equivalent for 5/10 LHE full ring is 26.5% for platinum. That is the highest LHE game that they list and I'm sure it is dramatically higher for the bigger limits. I should be able to make Supernova next year, if I keep playing LHE on pokerstars. It is incredible how many VPPs you get per hand playing LHE.

Graphs

Graph from 11/19/08 through 11/23/08
















Graph on yesterday's craziness
















2. Play my PCA step tickets until they are gone or I have a seat.
- I currently have one step 4 ticket and two step 2 tickets

I played both of the Step 2 tickets and busted out before the money in both. I'll spare you the bad beat stories.

I was pretty disappointed with my Step 4 game. I wound up finishing third (replay of Step 4) after a very long 3 way battle for the Step 5 tickets that included the short stacks winning almost every time they got in behind. I think I went out aipf with AT vs. KQ. :(

3. Make an attempt to play at least one PCA super sat.

I played two turbo sats to the Sunday Million and didn't cash in either. I don't think I can justify shelling out $650 for the PCA super sat, so I'll keep playing sub-sats and try to build up enough W$/T$.

4. Play at least 15 MTTs and maintain a positive ROI in them.

I haven't had the time to devote to playing any MTTs, but will probably get a few in this week.

So, after the break even first 2k hands, I wound up finishing with an OK start. Hopefully, I can go on a big heater this week playing against all the casual players that are off during Thanksgiving week.

GL at the tables!!

I am going to try to start blogging more regularly, but have been struggling with ideas. Setting goals and tracking them on the blog used to work (or at least until I abandoned the goals). With that in mind, I picked a few short term goals for now until the end of the year and I will track them on the blog.

Goals (from 11/19/08 through 12/31/08)

1. Play 30,000 Hands of LHE (mix of 6 max and Full Ring)

2. Play my PCA step tickets until they are gone or I have a seat.
- I currently have one step 4 ticket and two step 2 tickets

3. Make an attempt to play at least one PCA super sat.
- There aren't many good sub-sats, so I may have to try to build up enough T$

4. Play at least 15 MTTs and maintain a positive ROI in them.


I'll update the status regularly and post graphs and interesting hands. Hopefully, this will motivate me to play and post more.

If you are reading this through a feed, I think you have to click through to see the vid.


null - Watch more free videos

Circuit City's crappy customer service finally catches up to them.

I posted about my crappy experience with them back in March. Their customer service was horrible. It looks like others felt the same way and have migrated to other electronic stores as their first choice.

From the Times.com article on Circuit City's bankruptcy filing:

"There is no mystery to why the country's No. 2 electronics retailer, Circuit City, filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 10. You could blame it on the bad economy or decreased consumer spending — which played no small role — but the real culprit is good old-fashioned bad management."

I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I am glad that the public told them what they thought of the CC experience. They voted with their feet and went to other stores. On the other hand, it sucks that a lot of their employees are going to have to look for jobs in this economy. HH Gregg just opened up several stores in Orlando, so maybe the competent CC employees can find jobs over there.

If you are looking for electronics in the near future, they will probably have some good sales. Just don't buy the extended warranty.

FTOPS

I only got a chance to play two of the events and wasn't able to cash in either. I feel like I played pretty well in both though.

Event #1 $200 + $16 NL Hold 'em 6-Max - went out in the 1,800s out of 5,000+. My first 2 tables were really good and I was able to steadily chip up. Unfortunately, I was moved to a table shortly after the first break with the massive chip leader two to my left. He was calling and raising everything. He busted the guy directly to my left and another guy that was top 20 in chips was moved there. Weeeee!! Tough to pick your spots when you have around 12k chips, the guy to your left has 45k and the guy to his left has 70k. I wound up playing a big pot against the chip leader with my QQ against his KT. We got a lot of chips in on a T high flop, turn was a K and I was somehow able to slow down enough to not lose all of my chips on the hand. About 10 hands later I got all-in with a straight and flush draw against his top pair and didn't hit.

Event #5 $200 + $16 Limit Hold'em 6-Max - I felt like I was playing pretty damn good and had some guys at my table that had no clue how to play LHE, especially in the early levels of a tourney. Shortly after the first break, I got rivered twice in two huge pots within about 10 minutes. Both hands were almost identical. I flop a set, capped on flop, capped on turn, flush gets there on river, check/call, lose to guying chasing a flush. :( Not much you can do in a 6 max LHE tourney, excpect bet the heck out of your monsters.

I wasn't able to play any of the other FTOPS events over the weekend.

It doesn't look like I will be able to play the Mixed Event today, so the Wed night turbo is probably my next event.

GL to everyone playing.

OK, maybe it just feels like #98. FTOPS X starts tonight with the $216 6 max. I'm not sure if I have enough energy to stay up and play it tonight. It'll probably be a game time decision.

I plan to play at least 3 events depending on my schedule. I really want to play Event #10 Mixed Holdem since I have been playing a lot of LHE lately. It is at an awkward time (Monday at 2 PM), so I'm not sure if I will be able to play.

Events I am considering playing:

Event #1 (tonight) - $200 + $16 NL Hold 'em 6-Max
Event #5 (Friday night) - $200 + $16 Limit Hold'em 6-Max
Event #9 (Sunday 6pm) - $300 + $22 NL Hold 'em - may be tough to make this one
Event #10 (Monday 2pm) - $300 + $22 Mixed Hold 'em - horrible time
Event #14 (Tuesday night) - $200 + $16 NL Hold 'em Turbo - should be fun
Event #18 (Thurs Nov 13th) - $300 + $22 Razz - Maybe?
Main Event (Sun Nov 16th) - $500 NLHE - again Sundays are tough

Good Luck to everyone playing. I'll be rooting for some big blogger scores!!!

I was bored a couple of weeks ago and didn't feel like playing a tourney or NL cash games. I fired up 3 different tables for a change of pace - a 2-7 triple draw table, a 5 card draw table, and a limit holdem table. It got a little hectic playing 3 different game types at the same time, but it was a good change. I wound up finishing up about $50 in the 5 card draw, down about $50 in the 2-7 triple draw, and up around $700 in the limit game. I think playing 3 different game types at the same time helped challenge me and kept me from going on auto-pilot (which happens way too often).

One thing that stood out when playing limit holdem was how incredibly loose the game had become. I used to play a decent amount of LHE on UB about 5 years ago. I have jumped in a limit game here and there over the years, but hadn't really played any LHE in about 3 years. The games were getting very very nitty back then. Most casual players had moved to NL cash games and tourneys. Most of the remaining LHE players were grinders or at least had a clue how to play. Table selection was difficult and the mid-stakes full ring LHE games almost dried up completely.

I decided to give LHE a chance again a couple of days later. The games were just as loose and exploitable as they had been a couple of nights earlier. I was putting a ton of thought into every hand and had to take a lot more breaks than usual because I was getting mentally exhausted. I suprised myself at how much concentration I was having to put into a game where you can only bet the minimum. I started off running very good. My big hands were holding and I was getting a lot of action. I found myself liking LHE again. I used to think it was the most boring form of poker, but my opinion has changed dramitically. Position is huge. Meta-game is huge. Playing off your image is huge. Etc. Etc.

I've put in around 10k hands of LHE and things are going better than I could have imagined. I'm going to keep playing and hopefully the run will continue. Maybe Limit Holdem isn't a dead form of poker after all.

Florida 49
Georgia 10

Awesome Game!!! Go Gators!!! Looks like they have a good shot at playing in the National Championship if they win out plus a Texas Tech or Penn State loss.

Georgia who? :)

Huge game for the Gators tomorrow!!! It looks like the FL offense is firing on all cylinders at the right time and the players are pissed after the disgusting celebration by GA during the game last year. For those of you that don't remember, the entire GA team cleared the bench and all danced up and down on the field after they scored their first touchdown. As the announcers said, "This was planned." Classless jack asses - both the coaches for planning it and all the players for taunting the Gators. Urban Meyer and the returning players are using this as extra motivation. It should be a fun game!!!

Clip from the TD at last year's game (not real good quality):

The BoDonkey is back. I missed the 1st tourney of the series, but plan to try to make it tonight. The good thing about the BoDonkey II is that only your 8 best scores count which is good for me since I can't play all that often.

See below for all the details of the BoDonkey:

The Fall Bodog Blogger Series (Bodonkey II) runs twice a week every Tuesday and Thursday October 28th-December 16th with a TOC scheduled for Thursday, December 18th.

A few improvements have been made to the series. The series tournament structure has been improved to match that of Bodog’s weekly 100k guarantee (2500 starting chips / 15 min levels). Your top 8 scores in the series will be included and the rest thrown out to determine your place on the tournament leaderboard. The top 15% of the total leaderboard will make it to the TOC. So, there’s a possibility there could be more or less than 18 players in the final tournament dependant on the total number of participants. A “Last Chance” tournament will be held on Wednesday, December 17th for Bodog Blogger Series participants who’ve played at least three (3) weekly tournaments. The top 3 finishers in the “Last Chance” tournament will win their seat into the TOC.

Register for the Fall Bodog Blogger Series at BodogBloggerTournament.com

Register early!

The buy-in for each tournament is same as before ($10+1)

Bonus prizes for each tournament (Tue/Thu night)
1st place: T$109 + $25 Casino Credit ($100K Buy-in)
2nd place: T$75
3rd place: T$50
3 bubble players: T$11 (entry refunded)

Final Tournament prizes:
Grand Prize: T$2,000 + $100 casino credit
2nd place: T$500
3rd place: T$250
4th place: T$100
5th place: T$50

Please register early for the series so you’re not scrambling around at the last minute prior to the first tournament October 28th.

If you haven't tried out Bodog yet, you can play free online poker by clicking the link.

I was rooting for her while she was still alive in the Main Event. I followed all the online WSOP coverage and thought it would be great if she made the final table. The drama surrounding her Pokernews and UB relationships was a little crazy, but I was still hoping she would make the final table because it would be good for poker. The online coverage and her interviews made her sound a little full of herself. I heard an interview back then where she was saying something along the lines of how she was finally able to show the world how good she is at poker. People are funny.

She started to get a little annoying during some of the late online WSOP coverage and not just because it seemed like so much coverage was revolving around her. The annoyance was stemming from her "I'm so great attitude." It has to be tough to have such a big spotlight on you. I'm not sure how I would handle it, especially in my 20s in the midst of a big endorsement tug-o-war.

The ESPN WSOP coverage didn't do anything to help her case. She came off as arrogant and cocky. I understand rooting for the other remaining women players to bust, but maybe she shouldn't have been so publicly excited about the others busting. I don't remember all of the details but she had a few Hellmuth-esque rants about how the hell can other players play certain hands. It is obnoxious when it comes out of Hellmuth's mouth and equally obnoxious from her. I laughed when everyone at her table was giving her a hard time about eating french fries at the table. It was not a big deal. I've seen much worse things eaten or done at the table. They had clearly had enough of the Tiffany Michelle show and were poking fun at her.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like she came off like Scotty Nguyen at the WSOP HORSE final table. She is young and was caught up in all the attention. I was rooting for her to make the final table, but I'm glad she didn't after seeing all of the coverage. Maybe the ESPN coverage will help add a little humility to her poker game.

***EDIT: One of my biggest, biggest pet peeves at the poker table is someone calling the clock, especially if they're not even in the hand. My DVR cut off part of one of the episodes, so I missed this exchange below. Seriously, how does she call the clock here when she is not even in the hand.

I'm a slacker. I have barely posted anything on the blog for the last few months. I guess there are a few reasons including being extremely busy starting up the new business and lack of motivation.

I guess every blogger goes through that period where you just don't really feel like posting much. Some continue to post just to post and others stop posting for a while or all together. I have opened blogger a few times to start to write up a post, but exited out before writing anything worth posting. How many times can you post a HH about how to play AK/QQ in a 6 max nl game? or bad beats? or the good side of coolers? etc., etc.

I think my blog posting seems to have a direct correlation to the WSOP. I tend to post more as the WSOP draws closer and closer, go to the WSOP, have a great time, and when I return home I lose the motivation to post or run out of ideas for posts.

I think that I have shaken off the funk that has been floating around in my head since the WSOP and should start posting more. Maybe the start of a new Bodog Blogger series tonight will help. When is the BBT- foooourrrrr start? Is it coming soon.

GO GATORS!!!!

I was very let down after being in the swamp for the miserable disaster against Ole Miss. They redeemed themselves big time!!!! It looks like they control their own fate now - currently number 5 in the AP rankings!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Since I posted a bad beat yesterday, I feel the need to even things out and show the other side of the coin. (There are a few horrible players at 100nl.)


AA vs. AK standard, but what was the other guy thinking?

Poker Stars $0.50/$1.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $99.50
SB: $74.65
BB: $44.80
UTG: $104.25
MP: $50.95
Hero (CO): $111.55

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with A A

1 fold, MP calls $1, Hero raises to $3
BTN raises to $13
2 folds
MP calls $12
Hero raises to $30
BTN calls $17
MP raises to $50.95 all in
Hero raises to $111.55 all in
BTN calls $69.50 all in

Flop: ($251.45) 8 7 K (3 players - 3 are all in)

Turn: ($251.45) 4 (3 players - 3 are all in)

River: ($251.45) 3 (3 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: $251.45
BTN mucks 8 9 - ?? Not sure of the though process here
MP mucks K A
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
Hero wins $97.10
Hero wins $151.35
(Rake: $3.00)




Two pair is good right?

Poker Stars $0.50/$1.00 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $332.85
Hero (BB): $177.95
CO: $93.00
BTN: $108.65

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A K
1 fold, BTN raises to $3.50, 1 fold
Hero raises to $11
BTN calls $7.50

Flop: ($22.50) A A 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $10, BTN calls $10

Turn: ($42.50) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $30, BTN calls $30

River: ($102.50) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $126.95 all in, BTN calls $57.65 all in

Final Pot: $217.80
Hero shows A K (three of a kind, Aces)
BTN mucks 8 9 - Two pair is always gold, right?
Hero wins $215.80
(Rake: $2.00)

Poker Stars $0.50/$1.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



BB: $204.15

UTG: $15.90

CO: $122.30

BTN: $144.70

Hero (SB): $94.70



Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with A A

1 fold, CO raises to $4, 1 fold, Hero raises to $11, BB raises to $204.15 all in, 1 fold, Hero calls $83.70 all in



Flop: ($193.40) T 2 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)



Turn: ($193.40) 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)



River: ($193.40) 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)



Final Pot: $193.40

BB shows A A (a flush, Ace high)

Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Threes)

BB wins $191.40

(Rake: $2.00)

I played 3 tourneys tonight and didn't cash in two of them but wound up taking third in the $55 6 max NL tourney on Pokerstars. It was a very long final table, especially for 6 max - about 1 1/2 hours from the start of the FT until my bustout. Three handed it became a crapshoot and I got it in with KQs vs. 66 with no help. I'm disappointed at not closing it out, but I'll take the $1k for 3rd.

Going to bed now.....I'll try to go through some of the interesting hands tomorrow.

I haven't even put in 1k hands yet at $0.50/$1.00 nl, but have noticed quite a few big differences in the play. There, also, seems to be quite a difference between the play at FTP and the play at pokerstars, but this is probably just due to the small sample size. (I'll put up a post about the difference in play between sites if I notice the differences continuing.)

Differences between 100nl and 200nl

1. Thereis a ton more limping. I have seen hands that go - UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, CO and button limp, sb limps, BB raises pot, everyone folds. I was also at a table the other night, where everyone limped, I raised 9x from the SB and everyone called. I may limp-cold call stat to my HUD. I'm not sure if there is a limp-fold stat or not, but if there is then I will probably add that one too.

2. There are a lot more passive players. I have seen more players with 50-70% VPiP/0%-10% PFR than ever before - sometimes 2 players like this at the same table. I had one guy at a table the other night that had a VPiP around 85%, a PRF of 0%, and a FCB of 0%. He always called any flop c-bet and either folded the turn to a bet or made a pot sized bet if checked to. I was amazed to see a couple of people gift him stacks, when his play seemed so transparent.

3. There isn't near as much 3 betting with a couple of exceptions. In general, if someone was 3-betting then they usually had a very strong hand. I did run into a few people that had obviously watched one too many LAGgy coaching vids (3 betting way too much) and didn't understand when other players were adjusting and how to adapt to those adjustments.

4. You need to find a way to note the regulars. There are definitely some good regulars playing 100nl and it helps to make a note of who they are. There are so many more good games to choose from at 100nl. You shouldn't be sitting at a table with some of the better players at the limit, unless there are some fish at the table that you are targeting.

I'm going to try to start saving some hands to illustrate some of the differences.

I have been running/playing horribly for a while now. I think it is time to go back to basics.

The last week has been a little brutal over a relatively small amount of hands. I am up 4.5 buy-ins on pokerstars and down 8 buy-ins on FTP during that same time. I think FTP doesn't like me. :)

The downswing has gotten me thinking a lot. I used to rely on poker for some extra income, but the extra dollars haven't been coming lately - at a time when I could use them the most (starting the new business). The business is set up so that I don't need the extra income, but it would definitely help make things easier.

I'm going to play 100nl for the next 30 days and see how things go. I'll post updates/hands as I go. I'm not going to play any mtt over $55 unless I satellite in. It is a little humbling to drop down to 100nl, but it doesn't bother me like I thought it would. I need to re-tool and re-focus.

I am pretty sure there will be an initial adjustment period at 100nl since I haven't ever really played 100nl regularly. I have watched a few 100nl vids and the games seem a lot more passive than the 200nl and 400nl games.

I'm still alive. It has been hectic getting the new business up and running. We've landed some work and the money should start flowing in soon. I still feel like I'm in limbo because we are in temporary office space until the end of the month when the current tenants move out of our new space.

I haven't had much time for my usual blog reading, forum reading, or posting and haven't played much poker other than a few turbo WCOOP poker sats here and there for a break.

For those wondering what exactly I do - it is construction estimating for owners/developers/etc. I mainly work on large commercial construction projects and renovations as a consultant. Great time to start a new business in this field, huh? :) Really, though, we needed to go out on our own and the timing just happened to be at, hopefully, the bottom or near the bottom of the market. If we can make it work now (and on paper it does) then we should be in an awesome position once the market turns.

Next post will definitely be poker related...........

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

I have worked for da man for the last 14 years. Today is the first day of my new work career!!!

I am now my own boss. All I have to worry about now is figuring out how to get enough work to pay da bills. :)

It is going to be a hectic week, but I should be able to get back to posting about poker by early/mid next week.

It looks like someone got to Scotty Nguyen and he finally put together a decent apology. He sounds like he meant it, even if he is just sorry for the damage it has done to his reputation.

No, not to play poker.

Sorry, for the very long delay between posts. Things have been hectic, to say the least.

I have worked for the same company since I graduated from college 14 years ago. I can't get into all the details here, but my last day is September 9th. Another guy and me are starting our own company. I am a little nervous and a lot excited.

More details to follow........

Oh, yeah. I hope to get back to regular poker posts soon. I may have some free time after Septh 9th.

Actually, saying Scotty Nguyen is a bad drunk is probably an understatement. It is more realistic to say, "Scotty is a belligerent jackass when he is drunk." If you don't know what I'm talking about then you need to watch the ESPN WSOP HORSE coverage from last night. (It is prob already on pokertube or you can watch ESPN 2's re-broadcast some time this week.)

WTF? How did he not get a penalty. I thought the rule this year was that you wouldn't get a penalty for cussing unless you were using it in a derogatory manner towards another player. (DeMichele was getting abused by him and was able to roll with the punches.) DeMichele was out of line with some of his antics/celebration but that didn't give Scotty the go ahead to be a 10 times bigger douchebag.

I couldn't believe that he said something along the lines of, "Can I get a F*&king cocktail already?!?! What the F&$k to we have to do to get Fu*$king cocktails at this table??!?!? Let's get some F*$king cocktails here." Ummm, Scotty do you realize that you are on TV and there is an audience watching or has the beer clouded things that much. It's one thing to go after another player at the table, but a completely different thing to be a douche to a waiter/waitress that probably has to wait for a break in the TV action to bring your drink over. I can only imagine how much shit he gave the waiter/waitress that wasn't shown.

You know things are bad when Erick Lindgren starts getting pissed at your antics. WTF, was with Scotty yelling at Erick for not team playing with him to get DeMichele out? Erick response was an instant classic, "I'm not on Team Scotty. I've never been on Team Scotty. There's no way in hell I would ever be on Team Scotty in the future." I think this quote should replace the old tired, "I can dodge bullets." in the intro of all the future WSOP episodes.

I could go on and on about all the ridiculous drunken things that spewed out of his mouth during the broadcast, which was probably only a small portion of what was said during the entire final table, but it just disgusts me thinking about it. I have been a fan of his since I met him in Aruba in 2003. He always seemed easy going and likable - Baby this and Baby that. He probably couldn't remember anyone's name, but that was part of his charm. He must have been good at hiding the obnoxious drunken side or possibly the TV coverage purposely hid that side of him. Maybe, he just had an off night, but he is a public figure that seemed clueless to the implications of his actions. It is going to take a lot to repair his public image and it will probably never be back at the previous level.

Another classic Erick quote after he busted in 3rd, "I can't even beat a drunk!! I hope the kid wins!! Jeez, I can't even beat a drunk!!!"

EDIT: I had some of the quotes wrong - was going by memory. Below is a YouTube clip someone put together of all the drunkeness.



EDIT 2: MeanGene was covering the FT live and posted his thoughts on the craziness from the perspective of someone that was there.

Sorry about the last rant post, but you know how you get that feeling where you just have to vent. It doesn't matter if anyone is listening (or reading), but you just have to get the frustration off your chest. Well, the last post was my cleansing. I'll try to be a little less whiny - no matter how bad I'm running.

Things started to look up on Saturday. I even made it back up above even after the first run of brutal beats. The poker gods seemed to be shining on me. Sunday rolled around. Between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, I must have done something to really piss off those poker gods. All hell broke loose. Not only was I not winning the races, but I wasn't winning the 85/15s. (I'm not going bitch, just stating facts now.)

So, after being back above even, Sunday brought me into the negative to the tune of -7 buy-ins over the first 9,500 hands of the 25k hands. The good news is that I was up in expected value on Sunday, so it wasn't bad play - just bad luck. Oh well, I plan to keep plugging through and hope the next 15.5k hands is a lot better than the first 9.5k hands.

Below is my all-in EV graph for Sunday


The dark line is the losses for the day. The top line is my All-in EV. Poker is fun!! :)

And below is the graph for the 1st 9.5k hands.

I've put in about 6k hands this week and the swings have been brutal to say the least. I was up about 4.5 buy-ins after 3k hand, but am currently down 4.5 buy-ins thanks to some coolers, bad beats and a couple of bad calls by me. One was not folding TPTK for 200BB when I knew better. I was tilting for a couple of suckouts on other tables and should have just stopped playing.

Here are some of the hands (first the beats/coolers, followed by some winning hands)

Bad Beats/Coolers/etc. (scroll down if you don't want to click any of the bad beat hands)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049228 - Poker is fun! Flop a set against a flush draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049231 - AKs is no match for AKo

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049236 - I definitely should have folded this preflop, but the guy was a payoff wizard. Worst possible turn in the world.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049242 - Planned to c/r the turn - prob should have led out on the turn, but result would have been the same.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049245 - My moronic hand of the day. Was tilting and didn't fold freaking top pair for 200 BBs. So gross on my part.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049252 - I 3 bet from the BB because the guy had a huge steal percentage. I have no idea why he called the flop - trying to float I guess? Any way not to lose the last $100 on the river against an aggressive opponent?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049256 - Maybe I should just start folding AQ.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049258 - KK vs AA - standard

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049262 - This is pretty standard to get it in here, right?

The Good

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049282 - Rivered a straight flush against the nut flush

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049268 - Flopped set wins vs. flush draw this time

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049273 - This hand gives you an idea of how loose the 3/4/5 betting can be in the 6 max games in button vs. the blind situations.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049276 - Slow playing AA paid off - even though this guy would probably get ai pf.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049286 - I can win with set over set also

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3049289 - Another button vs. bb hand - ai pf.

I'll elaborate more on some of these hands next week and post some of the hands that I had trouble deciding what to do.

I’ve been working way too much behind the computer and haven’t really been motivated to sit down at the desk and grind out cash games. What little time that I have had a chance to play has usually consisted of watching TV in the recliner while playing a few sng sats or playing 1 or 2 tables. (I only played 7k cash game hands in July – LOL.)

I need some motivation!! I need to focus and play my “A” game all the time.

Setting a goal is probably the best way to get some hands in while holding myself accountable on the blog, so here goes:

Goal: Play 25,000 hands of 1/2 nl 6 max by September 15^th (1 month+) - not a huge goal, just one to keep me playing (Edited out target winrate based on gnome's comment about not having control over your winrate, only having control over how you play - good call.)

(We are at the beach this week, so I probably won’t play a ton between now and Friday.)

Some rules for myself:

No more than 2 tables in recliner – maybe this will force me to get up off the couch or realize that I’m too tired to be playing if I can’t walk across the living room to hook my laptop up to the 24” monitor.

No more than 4 tables if TV is on (In response to gnome's comment about leaving the TV off: My desk is in the living room, so it is on if I am playing and my wife is watching TV. If she isn't watching TV or is sleeping and I am playing then the TV is off.)

Don’t Tilt/Don’t let the beats effect me

Review previous session before starting new session

Watch at least 3 vids/week (maybe join DeucesCracked or Lego – anyone recommend one over the other)

Post tough decisions on CR forums, 2+2, or on the blog

Maintain a positive attitude/quit playing for the day if I feel like bad beats are effecting me

Quit if I’m tired

Try to always put myself in the most +EV situations

Don’t be results oriented – if the play was +EV and I lost, so be it

Another added bonus of putting in the hands is upping those FTP points. If I get a decent amount of hands in this month I might be close enough to purchase the 42” plasma with my FTPs around the 1^st of September

......because we're at the beach for a week!!!! Much needed and well deserved after a stressful couple of months at work.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

The FTOPS #3 Triple Shootout filled up pretty early, but FTP had a sense of humor about it and put up a new tourney for those that missed out (see pic below). I LOLed and registered.



Won my first table. 2nd Table played super duper batman style fast. HU guy was a calling station. Just biding my time, set him up huge, then out for $208..........

(WARNING!!! WARNING!!! BAD BEAT!!! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!! DANGER!!)

Full Tilt Poker Game #7556392744: Not FTOPS Event #3 (57456881), Table 5 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:43:44 ET - 2008/08/07
Seat 2: cmitch (19,875)
Seat 6: sohowdoiplay (28,125)
cmitch antes 25
sohowdoiplay antes 25
cmitch posts the small blind of 120
sohowdoiplay posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cmitch [Kh Ac]
cmitch calls 120
sohowdoiplay raises to 720
cmitch raises to 2,210
sohowdoiplay raises to 28,100, and is all in
cmitch calls 17,640, and is all in
sohowdoiplay shows [4c 6d]
cmitch shows [Kh Ac]
Uncalled bet of 8,250 returned to sohowdoiplay
*** FLOP *** [5s 7d 4h]
*** TURN *** [5s 7d 4h] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [5s 7d 4h Ad] [8c]
sohowdoiplay shows a straight, Eight high
cmitch shows a pair of Aces
sohowdoiplay wins the pot (39,750) with a straight, Eight high
cmitch: lol
cmitch stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 39,750 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 7d 4h Ad 8c]
Seat 2: cmitch (small blind) showed [Kh Ac] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: sohowdoiplay (big blind) showed [4c 6d] and won (39,750) with a straight, Eight high


SoHowDoesHePlay???

Wow!! Is it really Thursday already? I've kind of lost track of time this week. Working until 3 AM a couple of nights this week will mess with your mind more than just losing track of what day it is.

Enough about work, on to the follow up of the hand that I posted on, ummm, Sunday, I guess.

Here is the hand again:

I have no history with the player. I have only been at the table for about 10 hands.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


Hero (SB): $226.10
BB: $530.20
UTG: $38
MP: $622.40
CO: $218.80
BTN: $210.10

Pre-Flop: A Q dealt to Hero (SB)

4 folds
Hero raises to $6
BB raises to $18
Hero calls $12 - 1. Anyone play this different? Flat Call? Re-raise? Fold?

Flop: ($36) Q T 4 (2 Players)

Hero checks
BB bets $20
Hero ???? -

2. What do you do here?

3. If you raise and he shoves what do you do? (edited)

4. If you flat call, do you lead a non-club, non-King turn? What if you do and he shoves?

5. If you flat call, do you check-raise a non-scare card turn?


I'm not sure which play has the best risk/reward associated with it against an unknown. Basically, are you ever getting away from this hand? If no, what is the best way to maximize your profits? If yes, when and why?


I got some great comments and some correction of my wording since I didn't proof read before posting.

Anonymous - corrected my wording and then decided to check-raise to not sure how much and fold to a jam.

Smokkee - Call the flop and c/r the turn if none of the draws hit.

Pokerpeaker - Fold or maybe raise and fold to a shove.

aposec72 - Call, then push if the turn isn't too scary.

LJ - maybe re-raise preflop

Fuel - "Don't do what LJ says"; Check/call flop for pot control

loretta8 - C/R small on flop and call a shove.; "Anon poster that says c/r and fold to jam hates money and likes to light it on fire."

Lucko - willing to play for stacks here almost 100% of the time. "With the Qc in your hand, I don't mind calling and checking any turn to him. If I didn't have a club, I would be checkraising to about $70 and calling a shove or shoving any non-Ace turn." plus Anon commenter is a douche.

RaisingCayne - great long reponse go read the comments on the last post for all his thoughts. Probably getting the money all-in.


What I did:

LJ - I would need some solid history with a lot of all-in situations vs. my opponent to get into a BvB battle where I am committing 100BBs preflop with AQo. Making a 4 bet would almost get me committed against an unknown.

Hero checks
BB bets $20
Hero calls $20

Turn: 6h

Hero checks
BB bets $42
Hero raises to $188.10, and is all in - could have made this less, but I am committing myself and if he is calling a raise to $100-$120, then he is probably even more likely to call the shove since it has the feel of a drawish type bet.
BB calls

Hero shows [Ad Qc]
BB shows [Kd Kc]

*** RIVER *** [Qh Tc 4c 6h] [5h]

BB wins the pot ($449.20) with a pair of Kings
Hero adds $200 - :(

Since this was blind vs. blind in a 6 max game, I pretty much decided on the flop that I was going to get it all-in on a non-King, non-club turn. It seems like most people that commented had similar thoughts. If it wasn't bvb, I would don't think I would be playing for stacks oop with TPTK, but the BB is showing up with a lot worse hands and air so often that I really don't think I would get away from the hand on that board.

I don't think I could get away from the hand and c/c the turn and river would be way too weak, so I'm not sure if I could have lost less.

Any additional thoughts on playing this differently? Also, let me know if I messed any grammmer or wordingg up?